The Hour of Chaos: Part III
by S.S. Armageddon
Summary: Conclusion to my other stories, The Hour of Chaos 1 and 2. As the Chaos and Sol Dimensions are pulled closer and closer towards their doom, Sonic the Hedgehog must find a way to defeat the Chaos Clones on Earth and destroy the evil Apollo the Hedgehog.
1. The Beginning of an End

**A/N:** Okay, here we are at the start of the conclusion to the trilogy. But before you start reading, you should know a few things:

1) If you haven't read parts 1 and 2 and pay attention to actual storylines when you read, you'll be completely lost with this one. If you're reading this just for fun, then I think it's fine.

2) This story starts off pretty quickly, no introduction/prologue or whatnot. I think it picks up where chapter five ended in part 2.

I hope I don't disappoint anybody with this one...

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"Chaos Control," Sonic whispered, and was gone.

Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Amy, the Chaotix, and the other Freedom Fighters gathered in the control room of the Space Colony ARK could only stand there, staring at the spot on the grated metal floor where Sonic had been standing.

At last Captain Jeed of the Freedom Fighters marine corps clapped his hands together, turning the heads of everyone else in the room towards the middle-aged fox.

"Well what are you all staring at? You have places to be, unless I'm mistaken," barked Jeed in his usual blunt, loud manner.

Everyone slowly dispersed, with Shadow leaving quickly, followed by Rouge and Knuckles. Tails and Amy lingered for a moment, then they too turned and walked away.

Jeed put a hand on Tails' shoulder, stopping him just before he exited the room. "You didn't miscalculate anything, did you Prower?" he asked.

Tails blinked at the captain. "No, sir. At least I don't think so," he said.

Jeed rubbed his greying muzzle thoughtfully. To Tails surprise, Jeed didn't look angry. In fact, he looked worried. "Nothing comes to mind? Nothing that could go wrong? The Chaos Control couldn't bring the top half of him there, but the bottom half–" Tails cut Jeed off with a slight laugh.

"No sir, last time I checked all seven Chaos Emeralds combined had limitless power," the younger fox said to his superior.

Jeed studied Tails thoughtfully, his dark eyes looking straight into Tails' blue ones. "Alright," he said after a moment, releasing Tails shoulder. "Go on, kit. Go work on your next science project, or whatever the hell you do in your spare time," he said.

Tails nodded and walked away. As he hurried down the hall after Amy, he frowned, thinking of how Jeed had stared right into his eyes. _Was he trying to see if I was lying?_ Tails wondered. He supposed it didn't matter. Everything would be fine anyway. Sonic would be back in three days with good news, and hope fully help.

"Hey! Amy!" Tails said, hurrying to catch up with the pink hedgehog.

"Hey, what's up?" Amy asked, slowing and turning around.

Tails shrugged. "You okay? About Sonic leaving and everything, I mean?" he asked.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Why?" Amy asked.

"I dunno. You stayed in the control room for a little while longer than everyone else," Tails replied.

"So did you," snickered Amy. "I was just thinking about... stuff. And in case you're wondering, _no_, I'm not getting all teary-eyed over this. I'm completely over Sonic," she said.

"Well that's good. I thought he was going to have to fake his own death to get you off his back," Tails said, trying to hide the surprise in his voice.

It was almost ten o'clock by the time they made their way through the cold, steel corridors of the ARK to their sleeping quarters. They each said good night to one another before entering their own room.

Tails considered working on the new prototype of the Chaos Ray Mark IV he was inventing, which was laying on the steel work table in the middle of the room. During the course of the war against the Chaos Clones that had taken control of Earth, the Freedom fighters had discovered that the Chaos Clones were impervious to bullets unless shot in the brain. Powering fragments of crystals with energy from the Master Emerald, Tails had managed to invent a type of laser gun that used the energy in the crystals to neutralize the Chaos Energy in the clones. It was much more effective than a projectile-firing gun.

For the Mark IV version of the weapon, Tails was trying to figure out how to keep the energy from becoming excess heat so that the used crystals could be swapped for fresh ones less frequently in battle.

Tails picked up one of the luminous crystals from the work table and flicked it into the air with one thumb before catching it in one hand. Like the Master and Chaos Emeralds, the energy crystals glowed with a warm light from within, but with a much paler color than the emeralds. Depending on how strong their charge was, the crystals had a different color: red gems often carried the most power, followed by violet, blue, green, yellow, turquoise, then white as the gems with the least charge. Tails grimaced, wondering what it felt like to be a soldier with a white crystal in his weapon.

The crystal Tails was holding was green, the most commonly colored of them all. Picking up the prototype weapon, Tails flipped a metal panel off the top of the gun, shoved the crystal into a slot underneath it, then flipped the panel back shut again.

Taking aim at the reinforced western wall of his room, Tails pulled the trigger.

_Fwa-KOOM!_ Tails was almost blown off his feet by the recoil of the weapon. A flash of white light erupted from the wide barrel of the gun, smashing into the wall. The steel panels on the wall vibrated, crackled, and hissed as the energy was dispersed throughout the molecules of the metal. Eventually the energy spread into the ceiling, making the fluorescent lightbulbs running across the ceiling shine brighter than before.

A low banging noise came on the eastern wall. "Keep it _down_, Prower!" shouted the Freedom Fighter in the room next to Tails.

"Sorry!" Tails shouted back. Other Freedom Fighters had gotten used to loud noises and explosions coming from Tails' room and weren't annoyed by it all that much, but it _was_ late at night.

_Note to self: try not to make the final version of the gun so freaking strong_, Tails thought to himself, removing the warm energy crystal from the weapon and setting it and the gun back onto the table.

Tails sauntered over to the food tray that had popped out of a slot in the wall while he was down in the ARKs control room. He picked it up and sat down on his bed before unwrapping the cellophane from the tray to examine the food.

As usual, he had corn for his supper. This time it was corn chowder instead of creamed corn, corn on a cob, or cornbread. Tails picked up the plastic spoon on the foam tray and dipped it into the pale yellow liquid, pulling out a string of half-raw meat that was supposed to be pork.

Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Tails tossed the raw pork into the recycler in the wall before eating the rest of the chowder, then drinking the carton of milk that had come with the food. He tossed the used tray, spoon, bowl, and milk carton into the recycler. The meal wasn't exactly filling, but it would have to do.

Tails lay down on the thin bed on the side of the wall with his hands behind his head, sighing. For some reason he wasn't tired. He supposed he should be- he had hardly slept for the past two days as he and Sonic discovered more and more about an alternate dimension Tails had found.

Tails blinked. Was it the afternoon in that dimension? Nighttime? Maybe even the morning? He hadn't payed attention to the time of day when he and Sonic had Chaos Controlled video cameras into the alternate dimension.

_What's Sonic doing now? Where did he end up? Did he even make it?_ New questions kept popping into Tails' head, troubling him more and more. Eventually he rolled over and tried to get some sleep. Why worry? Sonic would be back in three days, hopefully with help.

But still, worries plagued Tails' mind as he drifted into sleep. Throughout the coarse of his life, he had always been able to sense when big things were about to begin. That was why he had salvaged a Chaos Energy negating machine from the wreckage of the Egg Fortress just before the Chaos Clones had appeared on Earth. That was how he had always prepared for Eggman's attacks. Something big was about to begin yet again. Or was it? Tails didn't know. Maybe the beginning had already passed. Maybe this was just a sense of achievement and pride at being able to send Sonic to the other dimension.

Then a thought struck Tails, almost waking him. Perhaps this wasn't the beginning of something big, but the _end_. It excited Tails as much as it made a tight knot of fear form in his stomach.

For better or for worse, the war against the Chaos Clones was going to end. Everything was going to end.


	2. Investigation

The next day crawled by agonizingly slow for Tails. Being unable to get much rest the previous night, Tails was about as responsive as a turtle on hard drugs in the morning. While carrying his breakfast tray down the corridors of the ARK, Tails accidentally bumped into Charmy, knocking the bee's food out of his hands. It took Tails about thirty seconds the realize that the angry buzzing by his ears was Charmy, floating in the air with his fists clenched.

After a relatively uneventful afternoon of demonstrating the proper use of the new Chaos Ray prototype to a group of clumsy marines, recon team Rogue, consisting of Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross, reported back to the ARK after a lengthy period of time scouting a ruined village full of Chaos Clones in the jungles of Vietnam.

Unfortunately for Tails, that meant that he had to go down and investigate the same area. The recon team he was a part of, Team Sonic, consisted of him, Sonic, and Knuckles as team captain. The four recon teams, Sonic, Dark, Rogue, and Chaotix, took shifts investigating different areas where survivors were suspected to be hiding.

They couldn't barge into the area to look, however. The clones had grown smart and often set up ambushes. The recon teams examined the area for a long time, often an entire month, before deciding whether or not to try and investigate the area further.

Tails and Knuckles each heaved rucksacks and bags full of food and supplies onto their backs before heading for the hangar of the ARK. Knuckles was able to carry ten bags alone, but Tails could only manage to carry four at a time.

As they entered the hangar, Tails saw Captain Jeed out of the corner of his eye.

"Uh, sir?" Tails called. Jeed didn't seem to notice him. "Sir! Captain, I need to talk to you!" Tails called. Still Jeed took no notice. Tails told Knuckles to start up their shuttle, the _Iron Fist_, while he hurried over to Jeed.

"Sir..."

"I heard you the first time, you dumb shit. I was hoping you'd just go away," Jeed grunted.

Tails blinked, not knowing what to say. "Um... okay. But sir, I was just wondering if Knuckles and I could come back on Thursday to see Sonic. I know it's not really my place to ask, but–"

"Sorry, kit. No can do," Jeed said before Tails could finish his sentence.

"What? Why not?" Tails cried.

"Look Prower, orders are orders, and yours are to scout that area for the next week. I can't do anything about that," responded Jeed hotly.

Tails opened his mouth to protest, then sighed. He knew there was no point in starting an argument. He would just have to greet Sonic when they got back.

Tails hurried up the extended metal plank of the _Iron Fist_ as Knuckles fired up the thrusters. The fox dropped his supply bags into the cockpit of the shuttle, then closed the hatch on the _Fist_ and hurried into the back of the shuttle. He pulled a headset over his head and knelt down by the engine gauges, which showed the temperature, coolant fluid level, and pressure buildup in the thrusters. Each of the gauges looked alright.

"We're good, Knux. Take her away," Tails said. He leaned back in a ragged leather chair, not taking his eyes away from the gauges.

An alarm blared in the hangar. The other ships in the hangar were secured in their docking bays tightly, and everyone in the hangar rushed out into the pressurized control room. One of the humans in the control room slid a key into a switch, then flipped it.

The two-meter thick, titanium alloy hangar doors slid open, and the vacuum of space rushed into the hangar. If it wasn't for the docking bays the ships were put into and the metal bolts fastening everything else to the floor, every object in the hangar would have been sucked out.

As the _Iron Fist_ began to slide forward, Knuckles angled the nose of the ship upwards and diverted more power to the thrusters. The erratic wobbling of the shuttle quickly smoothed out, and the ship glided slowly out of the hangar.

"We're all clear, Tails. How is it back there?" Knuckles asked into his headset, tilting the control yoke to the left and setting a course towards Earth.

"Looks pretty good back here," said Tails absent-mindedly. He was still working on the Chaos Ray Mark IV, which he had brought along with him for the journey.

It was only about five minutes before the _Fist_ passed through the clouds floating high above the surface. Knuckles tilted the nose of the shuttle upwards until they were flying horizontally over the Pacific Ocean. In the waters below, a dozen Chaos Clone heads emerged from the deep to stare in curiosity at the bright object soaring through the sky.

Knuckles slowed the shuttle so that the hull didn't overheat and melt from excessive friction, then brought it slowly to a halt over Vietnam.

"Where's the site, Tails?" Knuckles asked.

In the rear of the ship, Tails picked up a digital map and zeroed in on Northern Vietnam. A small, red blip appeared on the map where the Rogues had left a tracking device to mark the area. Another, green blip blinked on the map east of the red one.

"Westward, ho," said Tails into his headset.

Knuckles flew the ship westward slowly, staying low above the trees. When they were relatively close to the landing site, Knuckles pulled a large lever in the control panel back slowly. The _Iron Fist_ flickered out of sight briefly, appeared once more, then disappeared completely as electric currents began to course through the thin sheets of HIPS camouflage cloth covering the hull of the shuttle.

"Diverting power away from thrusters," Knuckles announced into his headset, slowly flipping a series of small switches in order. In the back of the shuttle, Tails checked to make sure that the multiple engines didn't cool down too quickly and lock up.

"Looks okay to me, Knux," Tails said.

"Can you not call me that? It's annoying enough with Sonic calling me 'Knux' or 'Knucklehead' every two seconds," Knuckles asked.

"Yeah, but Sonic's gone. Somebody has to fill in for him, right?" Tails grinned to himself.

Knuckles just grunted.

The loud rumble of the engines had died down to a low hum, and the underbelly of the shuttle was almost scraping the treetops. Knuckles eased the _Fist _down lower as seven small clearings appeared, one of which had a small, ruined village in the middle.

Knuckles softly landed the _Fist_ in one of the clearings, gathered up his belongings, and headed out towards the exit of the shuttle, where Tails was waiting with his own supplies.

"Ready?" Knuckles asked, pulling a poncho out of his rucksack and throwing it over his shoulders. Tails mimicked him.

"Ready," the fox replied.

They opened the exit ramp and hurried outside into the pouring rain, leaving the HIPS cloth activated on the ship. They could faintly see its outline, and would be able to tell where it was.

They hurried into the forest, still following the blip on the digital map until they came to a small space in between three trees. A bundle of HIPS cloth had been placed in the small clearing, and had they not known what it was, Knuckles and Tails may have mistaken it for a rock.

After setting up their HIPS cloth tents and camp, the two Freedom Fighters crept through the jungle, heading towards the village they were to be watching.

They sat under the leaves for hours, aimlessly watching the small homes and farms of the village. Despite the "waterproof" material that their ponchos were made of, Knuckles and Tails still became soaked, the water matting their furs. Unfortunately they couldn't return to the shuttle for shelter during the night either- recon protocol stated that if something happened during the night, the team would most likely miss it if hidden in a camouflaged ARK shuttle.

The afternoon passed slowly into evening, and the dark clouds became smudgy and faint in the growing darkness.

Tails sat in silence under a large, broad leaf, thinking of ways to make less of a recoil when the Chaos Ray IV was fired. Could he make the barrel wider, spreading out the energy expelled from the gun? Maybe he could adjust the wiring so that less energy flowed from the energy crystals to the barrel of the gun.

He was deep in thought, lost in his own world full of metal and gears, when suddenly a large, fat raindrop slid off the leaf above him and splashed over his head.

Tails snorted and shook his head, trying to shake the water out of his fur. Beside him, Knuckles laughed softly.

"You alright, Tails?" the echidna asked, snickering.

Tails shot him an angry glare, then wiped water out of his eyes with a one relatively dry glove. "No. I'm _bad_. This is ridiculous, why do we have to sit here doing nothing for _two weeks_, waiting for a Chaos Clone to show up? Why can't we just grab some HIPS camouflage and march in there to check it out?" he asked angrily.

Knuckles shook his head. "I don't make the rules, Tails, I just follow them. If I agree, that is," he added.

"Well who made a dumbass rule like that? It's stupid," Tails muttered.

Knuckles was silent.

Tails frowned and pulled his poncho around him tighter, turning his head towards the town. _It would be so simple. If we found out that the coast was clear, we could go back to the ARK and say so. We could get back to see Sonic in time,_ he fox glanced at Knuckles briefly, then at the sky. Slowly, he began to form a plan in his mind.

_Even if Knuckles doesn't have the guts to go in there right now, I do. I'll do it tonight, he's a heavy sleeper_, Tails thought. He nodded to himself, smiling softly. Tonight.

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**A/N:** Well, here's chapter two. Please review, and please check out the poll on my profile if you care and haven't done so already. Thanks.


	3. The Most Dangerous Game

At eleven o'clock at night, Knuckles decided it was time for them to go to sleep. Tails and Sonic had always considered themselves lucky to have Knuckles as their team captain. Some captains, like Rouge, were known to go days without sleep just because of a strange feeling about the area she was investigating... much to the irritation of Shadow.

They trudged back to their small camp in silence, being careful not to splash through puddles too noisily. Once they had crawled under the relative dryness and warmth of their HIPS cloth tents, they each removed small, tin canisters from their supply cases and pulled some of their food rations out.

Knuckles even dared to light a small, energy crystal-powered lamp to ward off the darkness. The two Freedom Fighters ate their dinner in peace, and before Tails knew it he had forgotten about sneaking into the village, and found himself talking to Knuckles. They fantasized about the end of the war and the great things and changes that would happen, like they often would during recon missions.

"We're going to round up all of the survivors on Earth- _all_ of them, every surviving man and woman, to our one cause of making Earth habitable again," said Knuckles. "We'll pick off the smaller packs of them one by one, then move on to the bigger ones. No bombs would be dropped, that would ruing the land. We'd go in wit ships and on foot and just blast them," he said.

"And then at the end, when there's only a few stragglers left, we'll go back into the cities and rebuild those. Central City, Paris, Sapphire City, Westopolis, Hong Kong, all of them," Tails continued. "It will take years, decades even. But by the time I'm forty–"

"Fifty," Knuckles corrected.

"By the time I'm fifty, everything will be back to normal again. Life will just go on. No more Eggman. No more Chaos Clones. No more war. Just... peace," said Tails, laying back and putting his hands behind his head.

Both of them sighed in unison, wistfully fantasizing even more in their heads.

For Tails, it was the dream that he could become a famous inventor and live out the rest of his days working for the military. He could live in luxury quarters in a military base. The food would be good too, no more of this corn crap. Steak, salmon, pasta, lamb chops, anything he could want. That wasn't too much to ask for after all he'd done for the world.

Knuckles, on the other hand, had something else on his mind. He thought of peace, of returning to Angel Island. He would no longer horde the Master Emerald, obsessively protecting it from anything. Long ago, a certain blue hedgehog had made Knuckles realize that he was in no way bound to protect the emerald. His ancestors guarded it with their lives, but that didn't mean that he did. The red echidna shrugged to himself, half-asleep. Perhaps he would turn it into some sort of memorial. When people wanted to see it, they could fly up to Angel Island and just see how beautiful it was. Knuckles didn't mind any more... as long as nobody tried to steal it. There was a part of him, deep inside, that still yearned to stay with the Master Emerald until death do them part.

Tails felt himself being shaken suddenly. "What? What is that?" he asked, opening his eyes.

"It's just me, Knuckles. Come on, we should get back to our watch," Knuckles said.

Tails blinked in the morning sunlight. "I... slept?" he asked, more to himself than Knuckles.

"Yeah. Is that bad?" Knuckles asked.

Tails cursed inwardly. He had fallen asleep last night, and he hadn't even known it! "No, it's fine," he said, sitting up and rubbing an aching shoulder. After eating a light breakfast, Tails once again slipped his poncho on and followed Knuckles back to their lookout spot.

Although they attempted conversation at first, both Tails and Knuckles found it difficult to find something interesting to talk about, and their brief murmurs to each other soon dwindled down to the odd, "funny weather, huh?" or, "man, I'm hungry."

The day dragged on, and after what seemed to be an entire week, Knuckles led Tails back to the campsite for lunch. After eating, they went back and sat in the mud for yet another eight hours, keeping their eyes on the village.

By the time they got back to their tiny camp Tails almost wanted to fall asleep. But as he sat under the shelter of his tent waiting for Knuckles to fall asleep, he made sure to bite his lip or pinch himself roughly as to not drift away himself.

After waiting until it was a little while past midnight, Tails once more donned his poncho, took down his camouflage tent and threw the material over his shoulders, then gently removed the Chaos Ray IV from one of his supply bags.

Pulling the camouflage material over his wet head, Tails crept through the jungle, following the slight trail that Knuckles had made to the village by tearing a large leaf in half or by making a small, shapeless indent in the muddy ground.

When he reached the edge of the village, Tails inserted a glowing energy crystal into the Chaos Ray and pulled the HIPS cloth over his face until only his blue eyes and the wide barrel of his weapon were showing.

Stepping around puddles and trying to be as quiet as possible, Tails tiptoed through the mud until he reached the center of the small village. _Only seven homes. Won't be too difficult to check them all out in one night,_ Tails thought inwardly.

Tails slunk through the village, inspecting the small barns, between and inside homes, and even closely inspecting some of the larger puddles on the ground. After about fifteen minutes of searching, he had only one more small barn to inspect.

Tails slipped through the rotting wooden door, greeted by the smell of stale, decaying hay and mildew. Looking around, Tails saw that some of the materials strewn across the ground- small burlap bags full of hay, torn clothing, and grain bags- were relatively new. There must have been survivors here at _one_ point, but none now, and certainly no Chaos Clones.

That was what Tails thought until a sleeping Chaos Clone slipped from the rafters above and crashed down into the dirt right in front of Tails' feet.

Tails' eyes snapped wide open, and he slowly drew the gun back until it was concealed under the camouflage cloth. The clone at his feet slowly pushed its head up from the mud, rising slowly.

Tails stepped back, trying as hard as he could not to make a sound. _Okay, I found it, there's clones here_, the fox thought to himself, looking up into the rafters.

Hanging from the wooden beams, some balanced and wide awake, others with their eyes closed, resting, were at least a dozen Chaos Clones.

Tails stepped back outside, grateful that he had left the barn door ajar so that he wouldn't alert the clones by opening it. He hurried further away from the barn, then broke into a run. He dashed wildly through the dark, his breath soon coming in ragged gasps. He didn't know where he was going! He was running blindly in his fear, with only his intention of getting as far away from the barn as possible.

Tails turned and peered through the rain and the darkness, pulling back the drenched HIPS cloth so that he could see more clearly. Tails instinctively let go of the HIPS cloth and raised his hand to his mouth to keep from crying out in horror. The awakened clone in the barn had staggered outside, the rain slicking the gel surface of its body. It seemed to be looking at something on the ground, following it...

Tails glanced down as he ran, his breath now rushing in and out of his lungs wildly. In the mud, following his every step, were deep, heavily defined footprints. _Oh, no_, Tails thought to himself. He stopped, glancing around frantically. To his left was the jungle, but the clone could follow him right back to the camp. He needed to lose it in the village first. Tails blinked raindrops off his eyelids, grimacing in fear. He could try to kill the clone with the Chaos Ray IV, but the deafening noise it would make would undoubtedly awaken the other clones.

Then he saw it- a small, rickety wooden fence, probably built as an animal pen. It was right next to a small home. Tails had never had great balance, but he supposed if he could walk across the top of the fence to avoid leaving footprints, he could hide on the roof of the small house until the clone lost interest and fell asleep once more.

Tails cursed under his breath, looking at the approaching clone, then down at his twin tails under the HIPS camo cloth. They were completely soaked, preventing him from flying anywhere, and even if they weren't wet the added weight of the water in his fur would still make his feet drag across the ground.

The Chaos Clone was at least ten meters away. Tails had to act quickly.

Turning on a heel, Tails set one foot in the slippery mud and dashed forward as fast as he could. He really shouldn't have. He felt the loose muck beneath his feet slide forward, and suddenly Tails was on his back, wallowing in a giant puddle of mud. At the sound of Tails' muffled _"oof"_, the Chaos Clone snapped its head to the side, its green eyes peering through the darkness.

Tails scrambled to his feet and continued running, pulling the Chaos Ray prototype out of the mud- another big mistake. The HIPS cloth blended with backgrounds, but was useless if covered by another material. The Chaos Clone saw a vaguely fox-shaped lump of mud dashing across the village, the rain making a faint outline of Tails as it hit his shoulders and head.

Without warning, The Chaos Clone bounded forward, landing only a foot behind Tails. The fox cried out and whirled around, raising the Chaos Ray. He was lucky, as the slippery mud affected the clone as well as him. Its large, three-fingered fists slid forward as it landed, allowing gravity to pull its torso and head down into the ground.

Tails continued running, but tripped and fell face-first into the ground as the clone leapt up and grabbed him by the ankle, dragging him toward it. Tails threw the burdening HIPS cloth off him, rolled over, and shot the Chaos Ray at its head.

_Wa-FOOSH!_ A blast of light flashed from the barrel of the gun into the clones head, which twitched, gurgled, and then exploded in a shower of blue jelly and brains.

Tails immediately kicked the dead clones hand away from him, got to his feet, and rushed into the jungle. He had no more thoughts of seeing Sonic or sneaking away, but of running- he had to get to Knuckles so they could get _out_ of this abominable jungle.

As Tails found the path leading back to the camp, thirteen roused Chaos Clones burst out of the barn, rushing out into the rain. Almost immediately they found the footprints, followed them to the body of the Chaos Clone and the muddy HIPS cloth, then rushed off in pursuit of their prey.

Tails crashed through the leaves, pushing them away with his hands and the Chaos Ray. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he burst into the small clearing where their camp was to find Knuckles, awake and alert, gripping a lamp tightly. He appeared as though he were about to start toward the village.

"_Tails!_ Where the hell were- you didn't listen to me! You went and broke my _orders!_ God, what were you thinking?" Knuckles roared furiously, shoving the lamp in Tails' face.

"We have to go! There's clones after us!" Tails shouted.

Knuckles blinked. "You... you..."

"Come on! We can't get anything, just _run! _We have to get back to the _Fist_!" the fox cried, running into the jungle.

Knuckles stood motionless for a moment, then dashed off after Tails after hearing the distant rustling and cracking of tree branches. At length he caught up with Tails and ran alongside him, leaping over fallen trees and ducking under branches. "I'm furious with you," Knuckles snarled under his breath.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but right now let's concentrate on staying alive," replied Tails breathlessly.

After a few minutes of running, they reached the _Iron Fist_. Knuckles reached up and slammed his palm against a panel in the underside of the camouflaged hull, and the entry ramp slowly lowered. The two Freedom Fighters rushed inside, Tails heading to the back of the shuttle and Knuckles hurrying into the cockpit.

"Do we have time to even warm up the engines?" asked Knuckles into his headset.

There was a rush of static on the other end, then Tails shouting, "No, no! We have to go right now!"

Knuckles grimaced. A premature takeoff in an aged ARK shuttle like theirs could lose them an engine thruster, but they had no choice. He powered the ship up, raised the entry ramp, and lifted the landing gear as the thrusters ignited.

A Chaos Clone leapt out of the darkness, clinging to the hull of the shuttle. Knuckles angled it towards the sky and roared upwards, heading towards the point of light in space that was the ARK.

As they ascended higher and higher into the air, finally entering the atmosphere, the Chaos Clone began to become stiff in its movements. In a matter of seconds it was frozen solid. Its frozen hand broke off of the hull and its body flew into the air, plummeting towards the clouds below.

Down below, three Chaos Clones in the Vietnamese village lumbered over to the headless clone laying in the mud. But they paid no attention to the body. Instead, one of the clones reached down and pulled a tattered and mud-stained square of camouflage cloth from the mud. It raised it up and leaned forward, as if sniffing it. Then it leaned back and looked up at the sky, its green eyes glued to the spot in the sky where the _Iron Fist_ had broken through the clouds.

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**A/N:** So what's your opinion on the shorter chapters? Are they okay with you guys, or should they be longer?


	4. Crime and Punishment

"What the _fuck_ were you _thinking?_" roared Jeed in Tails' face.

The young fox sat uncomfortably in a steel folding chair in the captain's office, wishing only that he could shrink away and disappear. Behind him stood Knuckles, the echidnas powerful arms crossed over his chest.

"I... I don't know," was the only response Tails was able to muster. He was too ashamed of himself to say anything else. His thoughts of seeing Sonic had completely deserted him. All he felt at the moment was misery.

"Oh, well that's great. That's just fucking _great!_" Jeed roared the final word so loudly that even Knuckles flinched a bit. "Two of the engine thrusters on your shuttle blew on your way up here, because you 'didn't know' why you were doing what you were. A third blew after you landed, giving a worker in the hangar third degree burns on the entire right side of his body. We lost two months worth of food down there, because you 'didn't know'! that isn't a good enough answer, Prower! Tell me why, _now!_" he shouted furiously.

Tails gulped, not looking in the old foxes eyes. "I..." he began slowly. "I wanted to see Sonic."

"You wanted to see Sonic? You wanted to..." Jeed's temper flared up violently, and with a wide sweep of his hand he knocked a model of a new ARK shuttle prototype off his desk. Jeed passed a hand over his furry brow, breathing heavily. After a few moments the angry fox seemed to gain control of himself. "You... did an extremely stupid and inconsiderate thing, Prower. Do you know that?" he asked.

Tails nodded.

Jeed looked up at Knuckles, sat down at his desk, then glared at Tails. "You're a full-fledged Freedom Fighter, Prower. As such, you'll receive the same punishment a grown man would receive. Five days in the detention center," he said.

Tails' ears drooped. The detention center was undoubtedly the worst part of the ARK. It was deep in the underbelly of the space station, even below the dark maintenance tunnels. Nuclear sludge from the ARKs energy reactor dripped from cracked pipes running across the ceiling, eating away at the steel floors or anything else it came in contact with. Food for those in the detention center was nothing more than a lump of corn bread and a plastic cup of water a day. It had been split into numerous sections that acted as solitary cells, and was dark for nineteen hours a day in order to conserve energy.

Knuckles frowned, but said nothing about his opinion on Tails' punishment.

As they got up and left Jeed's office, Tails looked at him remorsefully and muttered, "Sorry."

Knuckles led Tails outside, then went back into Jeed's office to speak with him personally. After a few minutes he emerged, sighing. "At least I kept the Master Emerald on the _Fist_ for safe-keeping. I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost that," he said, motioning for Tails to follow him.

Tails looked up to see that they were heading towards an elevator. "Are you taking me down to the detention center?" he asked.

"I have to," Knuckles replied stiffly.

They entered the elevator and Knuckles pressed a large, green button marked with an arrow pointing downward.

"Sorry," Tails said again as they descended into the darkness below.

"It's... fine. With me," Knuckles said slowly, not quite sure if he really meant it.

Tails blinked. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"No," Knuckles admitted. "But... well, let's just say I'm not as mad as Jeed is," he said. The elevator clanged to a stop at the bottom of the elevator shaft, and Knuckles led Tails out into the detention center.

It was just as Tails expected it to be. Grimy floor, eerie noises and lighting, and profane images scrawled on the metal walls by delinquents.

"Come on, Tails. Jeed said your cell is number twenty-nine," Knuckles said, bringing Tails over to one of the concrete stalls that acted as solitary cells. The echidna slid a key-card Jeed had given him into a slot in the door, opening it.

Tails gloomily walked inside to see a mattress, steel sink, and a toilet. The rest of the cell was completely bare. He turned to face Knuckles in the doorway.

"Can... can you at least bring me the Chaos Ray and some tools, please?" asked tails softly.

Knuckles sighed. "I'll try, Tails, but I can't make you any promises," he said. They stared at each other for a few moments, then Knuckles put a hand on Tails' shoulder in a fatherly manner. "See you in five days," he said. Then he closed the door and disappeared.

Tails stood in front of the door for a few minutes, listening as Knuckles walked back to the elevator, entered, and took it back to the upper levels of the ARK. Then he turned and trudged over to the mattress in the corner of the cell, flopping down on it. The rusty iron bedframe creaked and came dangerously close to collapsing. Tails made a mental note never to do that again.

He lay on the uncomfortable mattress for a few minutes, still scolding himself and cursing at his stupidity the night before. He didn't even care about seeing Sonic anymore. All he knew was that he was stuck in some ancient dungeon for the next five days, with nothing to do but scratch notes in the cement wall and nothing to eat but a lump of corn bread every day.

Tails must have dozed off involuntarily, for he opened his eyes to the sound of banging on the steel door outside. "Yeah?" Tails called.

A slot underneath the door opened, and a tray with Tails' dinner was slid under it. After a few moments, the Chaos Ray IV and a few tools were slid through as well.

"Captain Knuckles said to give this to you. You're Miles Prower, right?" asked the Freedom Fighter outside the cell.

"Yeah, I'm him. Thanks," Tails said. He took up the food and ate it slowly, trying his hardest to waste as much time as possible. After he finished eating the dry bread, he downed the water with a single gulp, then checked the digital watch underneath his left glove. _5:13_. Tails sighed and picked up the Chaos Ray IV, opening up a small panel on the back of it. He picked up one of the small wrenches and began tightening a loosened sprocket into place. The scramble through the mud down on Earth must have damaged it.

After adjusting the width of the beam the gun would emit, and its overall intensity, Tails aimed the gun at the cement wall and fired it. A beam of blue light blasted out of the barrel. It was about as loud as a cork popping off a champagne bottle, and the recoil of it was only enough to throw Tails back about six inches. If wielded by someone stronger than him, the gun would be quite effective.

Tails immediately thought of Shadow when it came to strength and guns, but he knew the black hedgehog preferred antique, bullet-firing weapons to Tails' Chaos Ray guns. Not that it really mattered: Shadow had such a sharp eye nowadays that he could hit a Chaos Clone between the eyes with just a pistol from thirty yards away.

"Keep it quiet, I'm resting," complained the person in the cell next to Tails'.

"Sorry," he said quietly. Tails looked at the gun, frowning. He was actually rather disappointed that he had been able to solve the recoil problem so easily. Now he thought he had nothing to do for the next four days he was in the detention center.

"Um... hello?" Tails called to the person in the other cell, trying to start a conversation.

"What?"

"Sorry if I'm bothering you, I just wanted to talk. Um... why are you here?" he asked, trying not to sound annoying.

"I hid aboard the ARK rather than go down to Earth to fight with the rest of my squad," said the man.

"Oh..." Tails said slowly. So the man was a foot soldier in the Freedom Fighter army. "That's bad," he muttered to himself.

"What about you?" asked the foot soldier.

"I'm in a recon team. I ditched my captain to investigate the area myself, and... we had to leave behind all our stuff to escape the Chaos Clones that came after us," Tails said.

There was a long period of silence. Then the foot soldier said, "Oh. That's bad."

* * *

Tails guessed it was morning when he woke up, because nearly five minutes after he got out of bed the slot underneath his cell door opened and a food tray was slid underneath. Tails ate the small portion of food quietly, trying to decide whether or not to speak with the foot soldier in the cell next to him. He decided not to. Back in the living quarters of the ARK, breakfast was served to them at six o'clock. While he wouldn't be surprised if it was at least seven at that moment, he chose to play it safe– the soldier may still be sleeping.

The second day in the cell was even worse than the first. Time seemed to inch by like a slug, and Tails had next to nothing to do after finishing his work on the Chaos Ray IV. Tails soon resorted to taking his screwdriver and scratching crude drawings into the soft walls of the cell, mostly poking fun at people he knew.

"Can't be slow, Mo!" said a crude drawing of Sonic, spouting one of his ridiculous old battle cries.

"_SSSoooooniiiikkkkkuuuuuuuuu!_" shrieked a drawing of Amy running after him.

"Two plus two equals... six?" blinked a large blob that was supposed to be Big the Cat.

"I hate my life and all other things!" shouted a picture of a spiky-quilled Shadow, waving a gun in the air.

Tails chuckled to himself softly at his work. He supposed it could be considered as mean by some people, but he didn't really mean it. Everyone he had drawn was his friend... with the exception of Shadow, perhaps.

Tails' main form of entertainment literally came from the walls of his cell. There was a hole in the wall that had been sealed with some sort of strange, rubbery putty, and Tails pried a small piece off with his wrench, forming it into a ball. After letting the ball solidify for a few hours, he picked it up and, laying on his mattress, began bouncing it off the wall and back to himself repeatedly. That was until his third day, when the soldier in the cell next to him finally snapped from the monotonous _thu-thunk_, _thu-thunk_, _thu-thunk_ noises the ball made against the wall and the floor.

On the fifth morning, Tails awoke to the sound of the metal door of his cell screeching open. Blinking, Tails sat up in his bed and looked up at the guard standing in the doorway.

"Okay kid, come on. Your time's up," he said.

"Thank you," Tails sighed sincerely, picking up the finished model of the Chaos Ray IV and his tools. He followed the guard to the elevator in the corner of the detention level, taking it up to the southern wing of the living quarters. To Tails' surprise, Knuckles and Amy were waiting for him.

"Uh... hey guys," blinked Tails, stepping out of the elevator.

"Hi," said Knuckles awkwardly, looking at his young friend as though he were looking at a pitiful kitten crawling out of a gutter after a rainstorm.

"Hey Tails," said Amy, frowning at Tails' dirty, matted fur.

"So uh... what's up?" Tails asked them as they led him to his room.

"We'll talk when we're in your room," said Amy, glancing at Knuckles worriedly.

They arrived at just about the time that breakfast was served. After living on nothing but stale cornbread for the past five days, Tails immediately dropped his belongings and began shoveling the food in his mouth.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" asked Tails after he had finished his meal.

"It's Sonic," said Knuckles slowly.

Tails blinked. "Oh yeah, I forgot! I need to say hi to him, where is he?" the young fox asked.

"That's the problem. He isn't here," said Amy. "He never came back."

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**A/N:** Okay, I apologize for the delay in updates. I've been having a hell of a time in school recently, and it's getting in the way of my fiction writing. Also, I'm beginning to consider making this story into a 5-7 chapter conclusion to Hour of Chaos 2 instead of a whole other story, since it just seems too short. But I don't want to disappoint you guys, so what do you think?


	5. The Fall

**A/N: **Wow, I thought I'd have to update tomorrow, but okay. Sorry about the day long delay, I wasn't at home last night, so I couldn't finish this chapter. But it's done now, a day later, so... I hope this doesn't seem rushed, because I literally just finished typing it :/

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"What do you mean he's gone?" asked Tails slowly.

"He never came back. We expected him two days ago, but he never appeared," said Knuckles grimly.

"Do you think he's stuck in that other dimension?" asked Tails in horror.

"I'm beginning to doubt if he made it in the first place..." said Amy softly.

Tails looked in horror from one friend to another. "Jeed's going to kill me," he said.

"Come on Tails, he's not..." Knuckles began.

"He _is!_ He's already out to get me after that screw up I made before!" Tails cried.

"Well I won't let him. You had no idea how long it would take. Sonic may be on his way back right now!" said Knuckles.

Tails shook his head slowly. "I sure hope so," he said. "Or else... well, I don't want to know what'll happen to me."

Tails was actually surprised when Jeed didn't do anything to him. The old fox just looked grimly at him and said, "This isn't good. This really isn't good."

"We still have Shadow. He's just about as strong as Sonic was," Tails said.

"But we don't have the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic's super form has been the deciding factor in most of our battles, and now that we don't have that power anymore, I don't know if we'll last much longer," said Jeed.

Amy, who was standing behind Tails along with Knuckles, spoke up. "He'll come back, captain. Sonic doesn't just lay down and die, you of all people should know that," she said.

"I'm just afraid if Sonic didn't even have a chance to lay down before he died. I don't know if he even made it," Jeed grunted.

"With all due respect, you don't know how strong the Chaos Emeralds are, captain," said Tails. "With all seven of them, I'm about ninety-nine percent sure they'd have enough power to bring Sonic there and back."

"What about the other one percent? Is that the percent that he disappears into nowhere, never to be seen again?" Jeed leaned towards Tails, his grey eyes gleaming.

"No, the emeralds definitely have enough power to get him there. I'm just not sure if they'd be able to get him back without having to recharge themselves," said Tails.

Jeed scowled. "I'm still a bit fuzzy on this entire subject..." he said slowly.

Tails sighed. "Look, I can explain, but– here, sit down, it'll take a while."

Jeed, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles sat down in four of the numerous chairs in Jeed's office.

"Okay," began Tails. "The Chaos Emeralds are supposedly the most powerful thing in our universe. Second to them is the Master Emerald, which can manipulate the powers of the Chaos Emeralds. With enough power, anything in this world can use a form of Chaos Control to teleport themselves to different places. A single Chaos Emerald is the easiest way to do this, but some people have done it without these emeralds."

Jeed frowned. "How?" he asked.

"I have no clue, to tell you the truth, but I know that they did it, and some didn't have enough energy to complete the teleport. This has happened to anyone in history that you've heard of who has mysteriously disappeared. A Welsh man named Owain Glyndwr, who lead a Welsh revolt against King Henry IV, disappeared and was never heard of after his revolt was put down. I've tracked remnants of a large energy source in Wales and dated them back to 1412, the year Glyndwr disappeared. In 1501 Gaspar Corte-Real, a Portugese explorer, disappeared along with his entire ship while searching for the Northwest Passage from Europe to Asia. The next year his brother Miguel disappeared while searching for him."

Jeed nodded slowly. "So you think this Welsh guy probably found some kind of energy source and tried to teleport away from danger..."

"But didn't make it," concluded Tails, "and the same thing happened with the Corte-Real brothers. I'm guessing Gaspar tried to teleport to the Northwest passage, and his brother later found the same energy source and tried to teleport to wherever his brother was."

"So with enough energy, a person could teleport to an entirely different universe," said Jeed.

"Exactly. I've been thinking just now, and I've thought it might be possible for this other universe to have the power equivalents of the Chaos and Master Emeralds. I think if Sonic doesn't have enough energy to get back– and if he knows it– he might be able to recharge the emeralds using that dimension's equivalent of the Master Emerald," said Tails.

Jeed nodded at Tails. "You're a smart kid," he said. "Let's just hope your friend is half as smart and tries to recharge the Chaos Emeralds before trying to come back here."

Days passed, and still Sonic failed to return. With each passing night, Tails felt Jeed's impatience growing. Still, the grizzled Freedom Fighter captain showed no signs of resentment or anger towards Tails. Tails began to wonder if Jeed had come to respect him a bit more after he had spent five days in the detention center. Or perhaps he believed that those five days were enough punishment. Or maybe it was just that Jeed wasn't as much of a hard-ass as he came off as. Tails didn't know.

At first he had tried to assemble all of the fake Chaos Emeralds he had ever made to fool Doctor Eggman over the years. He had yellow, white, purple, turquoise, and blue ones, but was missing the red and green ones, which were arguably the most powerful of the seven. He had done his best to duplicate those two emeralds, and by the time four days had passed he had made both of them. But when Shadow tried to use them to transform into his own super form, he found that it was impossible. The synthetic emeralds simply didn't contain the power that the real ones did. It seemed completely hopeless.

* * *

Storm studied the screen of a small laptop, looking at a radar reading of a large building in southern Las Vegas. He and Wave had been down on Earth for a recon mission for two days, and as usual the boredom of being an operative in a recon team had begun to set in. But Wave and Storm didn't mind anymore. After seeing the foolish mistake Tails had made in his last recon mission, all team operatives seemed to be working with renewed excitement. The punishment Tails received had jolted them into more intensive work, and nobody wanted to be the one to complain of mere boredom first.

"Storm, it's, like, two o'clock in the morning. Get to sleep," said Wave from one of the beds in the abandoned hotel room they were staying in.

"I don't want to look like I'm slacking off," frowned Storm.

"Who's watching us? No one! Now go to sleep, the light from that laptop is keeping me awake," Wave grunted, pulling an old pillow from a supply closet over her face.

Storm sighed, rubbed his eyes tiredly, and closed the laptop. The machine had been designed to set off an alarm at any sign of a large quantity of Chaos Energy. If it did, both Storm and Wave would have to check the energy-soaked area out themselves to see if it was Chaos Clones or another anomaly that had triggered the alarm. Storm never enjoyed that part of a recon mission.

"Wave, do you think we should have another team member?" he asked.

"Why?"

"You know, just because."

"Because why?"

Storm gulped. "Well, I'd feel better when we go out to check for clones," he said.

"Stop crying and go to sleep you big gay baby," Wave muttered, rolling over in her bed.

Storm lay quiet for another moment, then said, "I mean, there's been a lot of possible clone activity since Sonic left. It'd be safer."

Wave was already asleep, snoring softly into the mattress. Storm sighed and rolled onto his back, gazing up at the ceiling. How many reports of Chaos Energy massing in certain areas had he heard in the past week? At least three. Storm wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he knew that something was wrong. What exactly was happening? He didn't know, but it was big and potentially fatal for the Freedom Fighters, that was for sure.

A soft, continuous beeping noise disrupted Storm's thoughts. He looked up, expecting to see a red light blinking on side of the laptop, but there was none. The noise was coming from a handheld, interactive radar screen laying beside Wave's bed. They had installed small, Chaos Energy-detecting radars into the very hotel they were staying in, and at that moment the screen was showing immense amounts of Chaos Energy surrounding the hotel.

Wave, who had previously been as groggy as a turtle in sunlight, leapt out of her bed and swiped up the radar screen, glancing at it, then at the curtained windows. "Oh shit," she said to herself. "Oh shit, shit, shit." She looked up at Storm and said, "Grab whatever you can, we have to get out of here."

"I-is it...?"

"Of course it is, what else could make that much energy!" Wave snapped. "Get your extreme gear and all of your stuff," she said.

They hurried around the room, sweeping all of their equipment into supply bags, not bothering to turn electronic equipment off. While they were working, a small _scrape, scrape, scraping_ sound began scratching against the outer walls. As they moved quicker, the noise grew louder until it was a deafening roar of fists slamming against the walls, near the windows. Then suddenly, the noise stopped.

"It's g-g-g-gone," said Storm, picking up his new, compact model of his Extreme Gear and unfolding it.

"Let's just get the hell out of here and worry about whatever that was later," Wave said, copying Storm and unfolding her own Extreme Gear. She pressed herself against one of the walls near the windows, then slightly lifted back the thick curtains to look outside. She blinked. Oh my God," she gasped. She pulled the curtain back to expose a giant slab of metal that had been twisted and jammed into the wall outside, covering the window.

Storm blinked and stepped forward, pushing at the slab of metal with all his might. It wouldn't budge, even for him. They couldn't fly out through these windows. "Check t-t-t-the next r-room," Storm stuttered, his eyes wide with fear.

They exited the hotel room, crept through the pitch dark hallways silently, and tried the doorknob on the next door. It wouldn't move: locked. Angry and frightened, Storm kicked the door in and rushed inside, only to see that the same thing had been done to all of the windows in that room as well.

Panicking, they checked every window on that floor. All of them were sealed shut. They were trapped.

"The roof," Wave said. Storm nodded, and they hurried into the darkened stairwell. Down below, they could here gurgling and shuffling noises emanating from the darkness, and Storm saw a pair of bright green eyes flash through the gloom.

"They k-k-know we're going up," he said to Wave. Both of them looked up the stairwell. They still had at least twenty floors to go, since they had set up their equipment in a lower level so they weren't trapped up high.

"If we can't take an elevator..." Wave muttered, shaking every last remnant of sleepiness from her head and hopping onto her Extreme Gear. Storm followed suit, and they both blasted up through the stairwell and up to a door leading to the roof of the skyscraper. Strom opened the metal door. He could smell fresh air.

But then a liquid fist crashed into it from the other side, knocking the door off its hinges and sending Storm reeling backwards into a railing. He tipped, lost his balance, and then slipped right off of his _Type-S_ Extreme Gear, plummeting down the stairwell like a brick. He flapped his

arms wildly, but to no avail. Anthropomorphic birds could not fly on their own, and Storm was no exception.

"Storm!" Wave shouted, turning and flying down after him. She reached out and grabbed storm's gigantic hand with her smaller one, pulling up with all her might. And still Storm slipped right from her grasp, pulling her down and sending her spinning out of control into a wall. There was a dull _boom_ as Storm collided with the floor, and Wave quickly shot back down after him despite the pain of colliding with the wall.

"Storm," she gasped, touching her Extreme Gear down next to the albatross. Storm gasped up at her, blood dribbling from his beak. Wave grimaced down at the sight of him, tears springing to her eyes. Both of his legs were undoubtably shattered, along with most or all of his ribs. It was a wonder that his skull hadn't split open upon the impact.

"G-go," Storm heaved with his final breath.

"Storm," Wave cried to her old friend. But the albatross didn't hear her. He was dead.

A shuffling noise above Wave made her look up. Through the blur of her tears, she could see at least four dozen gleaming, green eyes staring down at her from the upper levels of the stairwell. She kicked off from the ground as every Chaos Clone vaulted over the railing.

She soared up towards the topmost level, weaving wildly to avoid crashing into falling clones. She rolled to avoid a large, liquid fist, then zoomed out the open doorway and over the rooftop. She reached down to her belt and activated a Freedom Fighter distress beacon, which would mark that very building on a digital map on the ARK until they could recover Storm's body.

_Wham!_ A Chaos Clone on the roof launched itself through the air and grabbed onto the back of Wave's Extreme Gear. Its weight proved too heavy, and the tail end of the board snapped off.

Shouting wildly and spinning out of control, Wave plummeted downward towards the pavement, barely able to pull up in time to save herself from becoming a bloody smear on the old road. She crashed face-first into the ground, rolled, bounced, then came to a halt, crying out in pain. Disconnecting herself from her broken board, she began to crawl away. She tried to walk, but couldn't put any weight on her left foot. Her ankle was probably broken.

Wave had gone no further than six meters when she heard the loud shuffling of many footsteps almost directly behind her. She turned around to see the army of Chaos Clones approaching, their liquid eyes glinting in the moonlight.


	6. The Hunting Party

**A/N:** After weeks and weeks of slacking/writing (whichever you prefer to call it)... this story still isn't finished. But it's definitely getting there. I just thought I'd upload this chapter because it's just been too long since I last updated.

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Charles Hanlon slumped against a switchboard in one of the various control rooms aboard the ARK. He was alone in the cramped room, watching the various radar projections of Chaos Clone "hot spots" and recon team locations. If there was ever a recon team or squad of soldiers in trouble, he could pinpoint the exact location where the distress beacon had been set off.

_How many other people are awake here?_ Mike thought to himself. _Probably about a hundred. Only the ones that need to monitor the machinery on this thing_.

The metal doors to the control room glided open and a short, scruffy anthropomorphic warthog lumbered into the room carrying two paper cups. Charles immediately sat up in his chair, blinking. Coffee. He hadn't had coffee in years.

"Here you go, Charley. It's lukewarm, but at least it'll keep us awake," said the warthog, hopping up into another chair and handing one of the cups to Charles.

Hanlon took a sip of the coffee and wrinkled his nose. He had forgotten the bitter taste it had, but was grateful. "Where'd you get this?" he asked the warthog.

"They had some down in the control room for the workers. There were only a couple people down there, so I figured it couldn't hurt to take some," said the warthog. It took a sip of the black, unsweetened coffee and coughed. "Whoa," he grunted.

Charles swivelled his chair around, looking back at the monitors showing the radar projections. "It's been all quiet here," he informed the warthog after a few moments of silence.

"Good. The last thing we need is another clone attack. After what happened with that other kid on that recon team, I'm surprised Captain Jeed hasn't pulled every recon team off Earth," the warthog said.

"We need those teams though, you know that. Our only way to win this war is to sneak up on those bastards and pick them apart pack by pack," said Hanlon.

"Still," said the warthog. "Jeed's supposed to be a real hardass. Maybe that kid didn't really piss him off as bad as it seemed..."

A small red blip on one of the radar screens interrupted him. Hanlon leaned forward, pressing a button on the control board to see where the distress signal had come from. "Las Vegas, in the United Federation," he said.

The warthog shrugged, casually reaching for the alarm button on the control panel. He had learned not to panic after three years of watching the radar screens. Little did he know that this one distress signal was different from the others. In fact, it was the most significant signal that would ever reach the Space Colony ARK.

* * *

In ten minutes flat, a dozen Freedom Fighter marines were suited up and carrying their new Chaos Rays, which had begun to be mass-produced and given to each foot soldier in the Freedom Fighter military. They all crowded into an ARK shuttle, waiting for the hangar doors to slide open and release them. None of them were tense or nervous– they had each done this at least twenty times before.

"So what do you think about this one, Kyle?" asked Andy, one of the soldiers crowded into the cockpit.

Kyle shrugged, gripping the back of the copilot's seat tightly: takeoff from the hangar was often rough. "Hopefully not another malfunction. That happened to me last time, boy it pissed me off," he said.

"Yeah, but which is better, a distress signal malfunction or having to fight a pack of angry clones?" snickered Connor, a burly human soldier who had been quick to take the more comfortable position in the copilot's seat.

"You've got a point," grinned Kyle.

The shuttle shuddered as it lifted off the hangar floor and began wobbling through the air towards the gaping exit. It wasn't nearly as clean of a takeoff as it would have been if a recon team captain had been flying the shuttle, but they at least made it out into space. The clunky ARK shuttle turned towards the darkened Western hemisphere of Earth, and with a boost of power to its thrusters, rocketed forward.

Tom Gevann, the pilot of the shuttle, angled the nose of the craft downward and plummeted through the atmosphere, hurtling closer and closer to the location of the distress beacon: it was imperative that they reach it as soon as possible to rescue the people that had set the beacon off.

"How far are we from the danger zone?" Connor asked Tom, loading an energy crystal into his Chaos Ray.

"About forty-six meters. Let's keep the camouflage off, we don't want to miss it accidentally if we need to get out of here quick," Tom said, easing the shuttle to a halt over the cracked pavement of a highway. He gently set the ship down, careful not to make too loud of a landing impact, then popped the exit hatch on the side of shuttle open.

"Alright, let's go," Andy said, flicking the safety off his Chaos Ray and moving out of the cockpit along with the others. They slipped out of the shuttle one by one, running across the road to the deeper shadows under a crumbling building.

Tom stayed in the lead, every now and then glancing at a digital map showing the location of the distress beacon. "Alright, it's just a couple blocks northwest of here. Let's go– _quietly_," he said.

They slipped out from the ruins of the building, moving through the darkness like shadows cast by the glowing moon. They stopped for a few seconds once or twice, just to let any stragglers of the team of ten soldiers catch up, then continued.

"What was that?" asked James, another of the human soldiers, aiming his gun upwards.

The other soldiers glanced to the top of a building, catching sight of a blue shape flashing in and out of sight almost too quickly for anyone to notice it.

"Do you think it saw us?" James asked, tightening his grip on his Chaos Ray.

"I don't think so, but let's form up just to be safe," Tom said, looking back at the others.

Without saying a word, the ten soldiers slipped into a tight wedge-shaped formation, with Tom in the lead, four soldiers flanking him on both sides, and a single soldier covering the rear of the party.

At last the team reached a long, barren street with the rusted shells of old cars and slabs of pavement scattered across the road. Tom glanced at the digital map showing the location of the distress beacon, then nodded towards an old building that looked as though it could have once been a casino.

"In there," he said, motioning towards the entrance to the old casino, which looked as though it were a black, gaping mouth eager for the soldiers to enter. "Stay on your guard, these clones are sneaky little bastards," he warned, leading the group past the open doors and into the casino.

"I can't see anything," one of the soldiers hissed upon their entrance into the main lobby.

"Flashlights?" blinked another, reaching for the light attached to the underside of his Chaos Ray.

"No," said Tom sharply. "_I'll_ turn my light on, everyone just follow me. We don't want to attract any attention to ourselves."

The team captain flicked his flashlight on, holding his left hand over the lens to dim the brightness of the light. He looked back down at the digital map readout, frowning. The red blip marking the distress beacon had moved. It could be a survivor mistaking the team of soldiers for a pack of Chaos Clones, moving to a different corner of the room whenever they came close. Then again, it could be a Chaos Clone that had picked up the distress beacon and was trying to lure them into a trap.

Tom turned his flashlight off, wishing that he could call out to any possible survivors. But he couldn't risk attracting any clones. "Spread out," he whispered to the soldiers. "Kyle, you move to the northwest corner of the room. Jarred, take the northeast corner; Ben, take the southwest; Andy, cover the southeast. Everyone else line up against the eastern wall and walk across to the other side of the room."

"Why?" asked Connor, glancing at Tom.

"There's someone else in this room," muttered Tom. "Or some_thing_. Try to identify it before you shoot, and if you hear it moving into any other room, follow it," he said.

The soldiers did as they were told, moving to their assigned positions. In less than fifteen seconds, the ten humans were combing the lobby for the unknown figure, stepping over and around upturned tables, chairs, and ruffles in the old, ragged carpet.

Tom was still staring intently at the blip on the digital map, watching as it retreated further and further westward as they approached, when he almost slipped on a small puddle of liquid on part of the tiled floor. He cursed at the loud squeak that his boot made against the tiles, but then blinked in curiosity.

As he knelt down to examine what he had slipped on, the other soldiers suddenly grew attentive at the noise, bringing the barrels of their Chaos Rays up and spinning about.

"What was that?" asked one of them out loud.

Tom looked up quickly upon hearing a gasp come from the western side of the room. He stood up, stepped over the puddle of blood on the floor, and raised his Chaos Ray, turning the flashlight on. Something had definitely noticed them.

A few short, irregular thumping noises echoed out from the darkness, and the soldiers tensed. Tom swept the beam of his flashlight up, bringing it to a rest on a short, bloody figure limping towards them.

"Thank God," Wave grunted, hopping forward on her right foot. "I thought you were those clones, I was barely able to get into this building–"

"Connor, help her out," interrupted Tom. "Sorry ma'am, but we should go. You can explain everything to us on the flight back to the ARK. Is there anyone else nearby, any team members?" he asked.

"He's dead," Wave said through clenched teeth. "Is it safe to go get him though?" she asked hopefully. She had no desire to leave her friend's body at the bottom of some stairwell.

Tom frowned, turning to look outside. "Where is he?" he asked after a moment.

"In a hotel just a few blocks south of here. Lamplight, I think it was called. He's at the bottom of the stairwell," said Wave.

"Alright. Connor, Jarred, Kyle, you get her back to the shuttle. Everyone else follow me," Tom said.

Wave allowed Connor to help her walk with her broken ankle, but wouldn't let him carry her. She knew that the human would have no problem carrying someone as small as her, but her stiff sense of pride kept her from accepting any more help. Besides, it would fell ridiculous to her.

The three soldiers lead Wave eastward while the rest of the team turned south to search for Storm. Jarred and Kyle seemed more than a little nervous, but Connor was confident.

"The shuttle's only forty meters away, man up guys," he snickered.

"I'm not afraid," Kyle scowled.

"Then why are you shaking?"

"Will you shut up and get us to the shuttle already?" snapped Wave. In truth, she was nervous too. Three soldiers versus two dozen Chaos Clones? They didn't stand a chance, and with her wounded and without her Extreme Gear, Wave could hardly defend herself.

Connor shook his head and lead the others on, not caring to stick to the shadows as Tom had done. He led them casually through the streets, at times even stalling to try and make Kyle and Jarred even more upset. Finally, however, they came to the dark, hulking silhouette of the team's ARK shuttle.

"There. We made it safe and sound, see?" Connor gloated, opening the hatch on the side of the shuttle and climbing inside. He helped Wave up into the craft, then led her into the cockpit and sat her down in the copilot's seat.

"So where is your shuttle?" Kyle asked Wave as he entered the cockpit.

"I don't know, I forget. Somewhere in the northern outskirts of the city," Wave said.

Kyle nodded. "Sorry about your team," he said gently. "I know what it feels like to lose a friend like that."

"Yeah," Wave grunted. Outwardly, she appeared to be completely uncaring about Storm's death. In truth, she was on the verge of breaking down. That was two of her friends that she had lost during the war. Was she depressed about it? No, not exactly. Was she furious and fed up with it? Most definitely. The war had continued for far too long with so little progress. Sure, they would find the odd survivor here and eliminate a pack of clones there, but that was all that ever happened. There were no big victories, the Freedom Fighters were just whittling away at the amount of Chaos Clones on Earth. They needed something big to help them, and they needed it soon.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Jarred began to become nervous. "Do you think they found the body?" he whispered to Kyle.

"I don't know," the other human said, fidgeting with his Chaos Ray.

"Should we radio them? Maybe start up the shuttle? We have to know if they're alright–"

"Just shut up and wait, Jarred. Jesus," Connor snapped, swiveling in the pilot's seat.

Jarred opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by a low _thunk_ from outside.

The three soldiers in the cockpit glanced out the windscreen to see the rest of the team outside, heaving the heavy body of Storm into the shuttle. While Andy and two other soldiers carried Storm to the back of the ship, Tom and the others hurried into the cockpit.

"We think the clones noticed that you're gone," Tom said to Wave. "We saw some of them wandering through the streets, and we think they might be spreading out to look for you– Connor, get out of my seat."

Connor grudgingly got out of the pilot's seat, and Tom quickly sat down, removing his gloves and reaching for the controls.

"Did they see you?" Wave asked, blinking.

"We don't know, but it wouldn't be the smartest idea to stick around and find out if they did," said Tom, firing up the thrusters on the shuttle. There was a loud, rumbling _vroom!_ from the rear of the shuttle, but then it suddenly sputtered and died down to a high pitched whine. Tom frowned and thumbed the throttle button on the control board, but again the shuttle refused to start.

"What's the matter?" asked Wave uneasily.

"It won't start," Tom said, peering down at the control board. "_What?_" he cried, seeing the needle on the fuel gauge teetering over the "empty" sign. "We had full fuel when we landed, this doesn't make sense!" he exclaimed. Tom got out of the pilot's chair, hurried out of the cockpit and outside, and glanced at the hull of the ship. At first glance everything looked fine. But then, on closer inspection, he could see a large, dark patch on the pavement below the shuttle.

Tom knelt down next to the puddle of pungent engine fuel and examined the underbelly of the shuttle. To his horror, the hull was pockmarked with gaping holes, allowing the fuel to drain out of the shuttle while the team was gone.

For a few moments he was too shocked to speak, move, or even think. Then, realizing what had happened, Tom leapt to his feet and ran back into the shuttle as fast as he could.

"We have to get out of here," he told the rest of the team, picking up his Chaos Ray from under the pilot's seat.

"Why?" asked Wave, blinking.

"Clones drained the fuel out of the shuttle, they must know we're here. We have to leave _now_," Tom commanded the other soldiers.

Without hesitation, everyone in the cockpit leapt to their feet, securing their gear to bandoliers, belts, or equipment satchels. Connor offered Wave a hand yet again, this time refusing to let her try and walk– speed was a necessity, and Wave had no chances of running as fast as the other soldiers with her broken ankle.

"How are we going to get out of here?" asked Jarred.

"We can't leave without Storm!" cried Wave.

"We don't have time to carry him. Do you remember where your shuttle is?" Tom asked Wave.

"South– no, wait, North. I think I can remember where it is if we get to the general area where I landed it," Wave said.

"What's that?" asked one of the soldiers nervously, backing up towards their useless shuttle.

"What?" asked Andy, turning to look in the direction the other soldier was looking.

The sun was just beginning to peek over the rooftops, illuminating the sky in a beautiful orange-purple light. The skyscrapers in the distance that were touched by this light seemed to shimmer as thought they were made of crystal.

No, not crystal. Droplets of liquid. And these droplets were moving, scuttling along the outer walls of the buildings like monstrous, mutated insects.

"What do we do?" whispered Connor to Tom. Wave felt the big human's grip tighten on her and realized that he was terrified. So was she.

"I..." said Tom, gaping at the buildings as the Chaos Clones advanced. "I don't know."

-------

**A/N:** Sorry for the boring chapter that had nothing to do with the main characters, but I've kind of lost inpiration for this story. That doesn't mean I won't finish it. But anywho, please tell me what you think, if you still like it or not. Either way, I've come too far to quit now.


	7. Board Set, Game Ready

**A/N:** Pardon my French, but holy shit have I been gone for a while. Yes, I've FINALLY finished this, and I'm so sorry for making everyone wait. I'll be updating every few days or so, uh... so, why keep you any longer? I hope you enjoy, and if you don't... nah, I'm not in the mood for saying anything more rude than my opening sentence.

----------------------------

At seventeen twenty-seven, world time, the final battle in the Chaos War began. What had started out as a mission for recon team Rogue became the largest battle in the war in a matter of hours. And it all started with an urgent call for backup from the rescue team sent to investigate a distress beacon set off in the ruins of Las Vegas.

The message came to the ARK perfectly clear: _Pinned down in Las Vegas, UF. Need backup. Lots._

In less than five minutes, the atmosphere aboard the ARK went from being sleepy and peaceful to bustling and chaotic. Every squad of marines, recon teams, mechanics, and volunteer soldiers began preparing for battle.

Vanilla the Rabbit stepped to the side as teams of soldiers rushed by her through the corridors.

"Sorry. Excuse me," she said quietly, trying to find ways to slip past the steady stream of officers, pilots, and soldiers and make her way down the corridors. She had awoken to find her daughter, Cream, gone from their double room in the ARK living quarters. While she wasn't necessarily worried, she was a bit upset. Whenever Cream wasn't with her mother, she was with Amy Rose, so she wasn't hard to find. Still, Vanilla would have preferred it if Cream at least told her when she was going.

After an agonizing time wiggling through the crowd to Amy's room, Vanilla knocked on the door loudly. There was no answer. She knocked even louder, hoping Amy would hear her over the din in the hallway. "Amy, are you in there?" Vanilla called. She was about to knock on the door again when a careless mechanic stumbled into her, propelling her towards the entrance to Amy's room.

Vanilla was about to slam into the door when it opened from the other side. Instead of cracking her chin against metal, Vanilla was caught by Amy, who was standing in the doorframe.

"You didn't hear me?" the pink hedgehog asked, frowning.

"No, what did you say? Oh, thank you, by the way," Vanilla said, stepping backwards.

"Don't mention it! I just said you could come in, that's all," Amy said, peering past Vanilla into the corridor. "I'm not surprised you didn't hear me."

Cream was sitting at the edge of Amy's bed with her pet Chao, Cheese, perched on her shoulder. Like Tails, Cream had changed drastically over the years. When she was six years old, her disproportionally large ears had the ability to carry her into the air. As she grew older, however, her ears remained the same size while the rest of her body grew. They were still by no means small, but they could no longer allow her to fly.

"There you are, Cream. I was hoping I could find you here," said Vanilla, looking at her daughter sternly.

"Sorry mommy, I was just wondering what Amy was doing. Everyone else seems really upset," the young rabbit said.

"Chao Chao," squeaked Cheese apologetically, his wings drooping.

"It's alright, I was just worried. You could get lost, or worse with all these people running around," said Vanilla, walking over and sitting on the bed next to Cream. Then she stood up again quickly, asking Amy, "May I sit down?"

"Sure, go ahead!" Amy smiled. She closed the door and walked over to a steel worktable at one end of the room, sitting down and continuing what she had been working on before Vanilla had arrived.

"Um, what are you doing?" Vanilla asked Amy.

Cream frowned at Amy, then looked up at her mother. "I've been trying to convince her all morning..." she said slowly.

"Convince– what? Amy, what are you planning?" Vanilla asked, blinking.

"Nothing, I'm just going down to help in the battle, that's all," Amy said. She moved to the side to give Vanilla a clear view of what she was doing. On the worktable were a number of things– Amy's old Piko Piko Hammer, which had lain in the corner collecting dust for at least four years, a bottle of polish, and a cloth. Also on the table was an older model of the Chaos Ray that Amy had. She would have preferred to own the Mark IV, but only soldiers were allowed to carry them at that point.

Vanilla frowned. "Amy, you can't be serious," she said.

"What's the matter with me helping out in a battle?" asked Amy, turning to the two rabbits.

"There's nothing wrong with it, it's just that... well... it's so _dangerous_," Vanilla said.

"I've been through dangerous stuff before," Amy countered. "Besides, I may not even actually fight. You know how it is. The battle may even be over before I get down there."

"I wouldn't count on it," said Vanilla worriedly.

"Amy," Cream begged, "please don't go. You're going to kill yourself!"

Amy sighed in exasperation. "Look, at the beginning of this war, all I cared about was Sonic. The only real reason I wanted the war to end was so that everything could go back to normal and we could 'get married'. Now all I've been doing is sitting around on the ARK doing nothing!" she cried.

"This is crazy–"

"Maybe it is, but at least I can say that I helped win the war," Amy said.

Neither Vanilla or Cream commented at this. In truth, neither of them thought the war was close to being won. There was a long, uneasy period of silence, and Amy turned back to polishing her Piko Piko Hammer. Then Vanilla spoke up.

"Alright then. What time will you be leaving?" Vanilla asked Amy.

"In about half an hour. I'm flying down to Earth with Tails and Knuckles, so I'll be in the hangar," Amy replied, not looking up from her work.

Vanilla nodded and glanced at her daughter. "Well, we'll stay with you until you leave," she said.

* * *

Shadow checked that the ammo clip was full before cracking it into the glock pistol he had brought with him.

"I can't believe you still use those things," Rouge muttered, powering up the _Avenger_.

"They still work just as well as any Chaos Ray," Shadow scowled.

"No they don't, those are only good if you shoot a clone in the head!"

"Whatever, they make me feel more comfortable than some ray gun," Shadow said. He tucked the gun into a supply pouch on the side of the copilot's seat, buckled himself in next to Rouge, and drew in a deep breath.

"Are you ready?" asked Rouge, glancing at her old friend.

"Not really, but I'll be okay," Shadow said. "We've never been in a battle this big before."

"Not since Eggman attacked Angel Island at the beginning of the war," Rouge remembered, grimacing at the memory of losing Omega to Eggman's robots.

"I forgot about that," said Shadow quietly. He pulled back his black and red wristband and looked at a digital watch on his wrist. "It's about time to go," he said, looking out of the cockpit windscreen at the squad of soldiers that they were meant to fly down to Earth.

"Right," Rouge said, jabbing the ignition button with her thumb. The thrusters in the rear of the _Avenger_ roared to life, followed quickly by the thrusters of almost every other shuttle in the hangar.

"Too bad we have to carry those idiots with us," Shadow muttered to Rouge as the squad of marines clambered aboard the _Avenger_.

"If we want to win this battle, we're bringing them," Rouge said, flipping a few switches on the control board.

"Still not a guarantee that we'll win," Shadow said. He glanced at a marine and a volunteer soldier as they sauntered into the cockpit, looking around at the controls in wonder.

The volunteer soldier brushed back his long hair leaned against a wall, then looked at Rouge and Shadow. As Shadow watched him, he noticed that the human almost looked amused.

"Nice antique," the volunteer smirked at Shadow, regarding the gun that was sticking out of the supply pouch.

Shadow nodded and settled into his chair, looking out the windscreen. "Nice mullet," he retorted just enough for the volunteer to hear him.

Rouge and the marine sniggered softly. The volunteer's smirk disappeared.

* * *

Amy hugged Vanilla and Cream one last time, holding them both tightly. She realized that this could be the last time she ever saw them.

"Good luck, Amy," said Vanilla, smiling.

"Thanks," Amy said. Then she bent down and hugged Cream tightly as well. "Bye, Cream," was all she could say. She stood and stared at the two rabbits, then smiled sheepishly. "Well, I guess I should get going," she said.

"Chao Chao!"

Amy blinked. "Whoops! Sorry, bye Cheese," Amy laughed, kissing the small Chao on the forehead. He smiled and buzzed around in small circles happily. Then Amy turned and headed towards the _Iron Fist_, carrying the bulky Chaos Ray MK III and trailing her newly polished Piko Piko hammer behind her. She turned and waved to the rabbits one last time before entering the shuttle.

"Well," Vanilla sighed, "I guess we should all stand out of the way. I have a feeling they're going to clear the hangar soon."

"Okay, mommy," said Cream, grabbing Cheese by his tiny hand and leading him towards the hangar exit. Vanilla was about to follow the two when a loud, booming voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Hey, Vanilla!" shouted Vector the Crocodile, lumbering towards her through the crowd. "What's up?" Vector said, grinning from ear to ear when he reached Vanilla.

Vanilla tried to keep back a small laugh, knowing all too well of Vector's obvious crush on her. "Hi Vector," she said, using the laugh to form a convincing smile. Then she turned to Cream and said, "Honey, why don't you take Cheese and wait by the control room. I'll only be a minute."

"Okay, mommy. Nice to see you, Mister Vector!" Cream chirped happily before leading Cheese across the hangar floor to the large control room that visitors were required to stay in during shuttle takeoffs. The room was jam-packed with ARK personnel and visitors alike.

Vector gave the young girl a nervous wave before turning his attention back to Vanilla. "So, uh, are you coming along too?" he asked, frowning and shoving his hands deep into the pockets of the trousers he was wearing to appear casual. It didn't feel quite right, so he quickly removed them.

Vanilla smiled pleasantly. "No, sorry Vector. It's too dangerous for me, and I have to look after Cream here," she said.

"**Warning: shuttle takeoff in sixty seconds," **squawked a ringing, metallic voice from one of the large speakers in the ceiling of the hangar.

Vector glanced upwards, then looked back at Vanilla. "Well, good," he said after a moment, flashing her a grin. "It can be really dangerous down there. You'd be scared, I think, it's better if you were here. Lots of explosions and stuff..."

"**Captain of Team Chaotix, get into your shuttle,**" blared the speaker in annoyance.

Looking around, Vanilla saw that she and Vector were the last two people in the hangar. She smiled sheepishly at Vector and said, "Well, goodbye, Vector."

They moved towards each other awkwardly, unsure of how they should say goodbye to each other. At first Vanilla moved to hug the large crocodile, while Vector in turn tried to shake hands with her.

"Oh, uh–" Vector shifted to try and hug Vanilla instead, but at the same time she moved to try and shake his hand.

"**Vector. _Now_," commanded the speaker.**

"Bye," they both said sheepishly before turning and hurrying to where they were supposed to be.

"What was that all about?" asked Espio as Vector entered the cockpit of their shuttle, the _Silent Ghost_, and squeezed into the small pilot's seat.

"Nothing," the croc muttered, firing up the thrusters.

"What was that all about?" asked Cream to Vanilla as she stepped into the control room.

"Chao Chao?" Cheese inquired, tilting his round head to the side.

"Nothing," Vanilla whispered to her daughter as the control room door sealed shut.

The hangar doors creaked, groaned, then let out a God-awful metallic shriek as they retracted into the walls. The howling gale of space filled the hangar momentarily before the air became stabilized. One by one, the captains of each shuttle reported their shuttle name and number, then blasted out into the inky blackness towards Earth.

"_Echo_, shuttle one."

"_Hammer_, shuttle three."

"_Iron Fist_, shuttle four."

"_Silent Ghost_, shuttle seven."

"_Avenger_, shuttle eight."

"_Hawkeye_, shuttle eleven."

"_Razor's Edge_, shuttle twelve."

The seven shuttles, each packed with at least two dozen soldiers, grouped together, angled themselves towards Earth, then sped off towards the Western Hemisphere. The final stand against the Chaos Clones was near.


	8. The Last Stand

The seven shuttles, clumsy as they were, managed to pass through the outer atmosphere of Earth without much difficulty. As they came to an unsteady halt over the rooftops of Las Vegas, each of the pilots peered through the windshields of their shuttles to try and get a visual on the battlegrounds.

"Distress beacon's coming from the eastern side of the city, but we should try to flank the entire area to neutralize the danger," suggested Sarah Rogers, captain of the _Razor's Edge_.

Knuckles squinted down at the city, looking for any sign of movement. "I can't see anything in this dark, we need to fly lower," he said after a few moments.

"Same here. Everyone quiet their engines and power up their camouflage," said Vector. He slowly closed the throttle of his shuttle, causing the roar of the engine to become a low rumble. The nose of the craft dipped a bit, but he was able to level it out easily.

The other shuttles followed suit, all dropping in altitude and powering down their thrusters. When they passed below the first rooftop the seven shuttles one by one activated their HIPS cloth camouflage, becoming mere shadows against the moonlight.

Oreck, captain of the _Echo_, began to feel nervous. They were close enough to the distress beacon that any Chaos Clones should have been easy to find. As he lowered the shuttle towards the street, he failed to notice a flash of the moonlight against one of the cold concrete walls outside.

"Are you sure this camouflage hides us in this bright light? I feel like there are a hundred clones staring at us right now," grunted Shadow, shifting in the copilot's seat in the _Avenger_.

"Hey, no clones have gotten wise to it yet. We're fine," replied Knuckles from the _Fist_.

Oreck glanced out through the windscreen, looking down at the streets for any sign of danger. Then something caught his eye. "The shadows! Our ships are making shadows!" he cried. Suddenly the _Echo _lurched to the side, colliding violently with the _Silent Ghost_.

"Ow! What the hell, Oreck!" Vector shouted, rubbing the top of his skull, which had cracked against the cockpit ceiling from the impact.

Oreck just let out a shout of dismay, and the _Echo _continued to jerk in every which way as though the ship itself was experiencing an epileptic seizure. "It's on the windshield!" he finally managed to shout.

Sure enough, the other pilots were able to make out the faint outline of a Chaos Clone, clinging to the windshield of the _Echo_ for dear life. No sooner had they noticed it, another clone leaped from a rooftop above, landing with a loud _bang! _on the hull of the _Avenger_.

Rouge twisted the control yoke to keep control of the ship as the weight of the clone knocked the shuttle off balance. "We need to land somewhere, they know where we are!" she shouted.

Clones began scuttling out of the darkness, swarming about the shuttles like ants to a picnic. The _Echo _quickly gained five more clone passengers on its hull before reeling to the side and crashing through the wall of a building. The shuttle came to a grinding halt, then plummeted four stories as the floor it was resting on collapsed under the pressure.

In an instant, everything was thrown into chaos. Shuttles spun wildly, dodging clones as they leapt off walls towards them and trying to dislodge ones that were already clinging to them. Of the six remaining shuttles, Rouge was able to guide the _Avenger_ down to the street safest. Next came Vector, who had surprisingly managed to gain control over the _Ghost_ and land it with minimal damage. The others didn't fare so well, with the _Razor's Edge _having its tail crushed as it crashed into the pavement and the _Iron Fist_ nearly shearing its landing gear right off as it slid to a halt further on down the street. The _Hammer _and _Hawkeye _were able to land safely, but suffered heavy damage from clones that were hammering on their hulls.

_Well, I guess we'll have to reach that rescue team on foot_, Knuckles thought, hurling his headset away and unbuckling himself hurriedly. In the copilot's seat, Tails unbuckled himself and snatched up his own Chaos Ray III, hurrying after Knuckles as the echidna pushed through the crowd of marines to the entry ramp.

"Knuckles," Tails called, but his voice was muffled by the sounds of kindling battle outside.

Knuckles didn't hear him. He threw at switch on the wall, and the entry ramp fell open, smashing against the pavement.

"Knu–"

Tails was cut off as a clone skidded in front of Knuckles, then crouched down and lunged at him. With a loud grunt, Knuckles smashed his fist into the side of its head, sending it flying at least ten meters down the street.

"Knuckles!" Tails shouted again.

"Yeah? What?" Knuckles cried, turning back to Tails as the marines rushed past him, holding their Chaos Ray rifles at the ready.

"I have something in the back that might help us out a little, I need to get it ready!" Tails said, flinching as a green flash of energy from the soldiers' Chaos Rays lit up the dark street.

"Fine, whatever! Just be careful, make sure no clones get in here!" Knuckles called back. The red echidna turned and hurried after the marines, rushing towards the sea of attacking Chaos Clones.

Amy, who had gotten stuck in the congested exit of the _Fist_, turned back to Tails in confusion. "Where are you going?" she asked as the fox headed to the back of the shuttle.

Tails turned back and shouted, "I kept my old _Cyclone_ back there for a time like this. I figure it's about time I get it."

Amy didn't like the idea of Tails staying behind, but knew that he was right. The _Cyclone_ would be an invaluable help to them in this battle. She turned and hurried after the squad of marines that was battling through the crowds, trying to make out Knuckles in the confusion. It wasn't long before she was barreling through the sea of Chaos clones, swinging her Piko Piko hammer to and fro to clear a swath through the crowd.

Knuckles ducked as a clone dove at him, then slammed one spiked fist into the gut of another. Its eyes bulged grotesquely, and it collapsed to the pavement. Knuckles snickered. _Guess their head isn't the only weak spot_, he mused. He followed the marines, his only weapons being his deadly fists and combat experience.

The marines seemed to be holding their own extremely well, also. They formed a tight, double-layered circle, with the outside row of troops crouched low and the second row shooting over their heads. The result was a devastating wall of laser fire covering the troops from all different directions, frying any clone that dared attack them.

And attack they did. The clones fought more savagely and aggressively than ever before. They rushed down the street towards the marines with no fear of being shot, bounded along walls, abandoned vehicles, and lampposts like freakish, mutated toads. They smashed through walls and dropped from rooftops, attacking from the most unexpected places imaginable.

Knuckles plowed through the wall of clones like a tank, smashing them into the air, squashing their heads between his powerful hands, or hurling them through walls. But his stamina was limited, and he was beginning to ever so slightly slow down. He just hoped that what was left of Team Rogue and the rescue team was close.

Knuckles blinked a bead of sweat out of his eyes. In the brief flashes from the Chaos Rays he could make out the silhouettes of the marines he had carried down to the city in the _Fist_. He had to get close to them, to bring their group back together. Their only hope was to group together to fight off the increasing numbers of Chaos Clones.

The echidna tensed his leg muscles, crouched low, then charged forward. He ignored all Chaos Clones as they clumsily swung at him or tried to catch him in their massive, three-fingered hands, concentrating on reaching the group of marines. He was almost there, just a few more meters–

_Whack! _A hubcap-sized palm smacked Knuckles in the face, sending him flipping backwards and cracking his skull against the road. His momentum still carried him forward, and Knuckles continued to bounce onward down the street in some kind of profane parody of a rubber ball. Finally the echidna skidded to a stop, bruised, scraped, and battered.

Knuckles glanced upwards just in time to see a Chaos Clone bound into the air, ready to come crashing down onto his head and break his neck. Thinking quickly, Knuckles drew in a deep breath, then smashed both fists into the pavement. His fists blurring, Knuckles tore at the ground furiously until he disappeared from sight, leaving nothing but a dark tunnel in his wake.

The clone landed on the street, blinking in confusion. It leaned down, peered into the tunnel Knuckles had left, and was promptly punched right in the face. The clone was sent reeling backwards, and Knuckles continued to tunnel through the ground, scrabbling through the gravel until he came to a certain area where the earth seemed especially compressed. There was something big above him. He began tunneling upwards until he smashed up through the floor of a pharmacy.

__

Whoops.

Knuckles climbed out of the hole he had made and glanced out the wide, glass window of the building. Standing in the middle of the street was the circle of marines, blasting away at surrounding clones. Knuckles blinked. _Oh. That worked out okay, I guess_, he thought. He picked up one of the slabs of floor that he had torn up and hurled it through the window, then leapt outside to rejoin the fray.

* * *

As they had expected, Rouge and Shadow were almost directly in the center of the battle, fighting back-to-back as their team of marines pushed on towards the other teams.

Even in the horrific battle conditions, the two warriors moved as gracefully as a pair of professional dancers, their fighting styles complementing one another perfectly. Rouge would knock a clone after clone to the side, her feet and fists flying, while Shadow would savagely smash them into oblivion while they were on the ground.

"This isn't what I expected!" Rouge shouted, tensing as another clone smashed through a window, leaping towards them.

"Me neither. I thought we'd be dead by now," Shadow grunted. He barely managed to catch a clone's fist as it punched at him, then swung his left leg up and kicked it in the groin. Rouge and Shadow simultaneously switched the directions they were facing. Rouge slammed her heel into the face of the clone Shadow had kicked, and Shadow brought both hands up into a powerful sledgehammer blow, hitting in the face the clone Rouge had tensed at.

"Wait, you're saying this is _easy_?" gawked Rouge.

"No, just not as intense as I thought it would be," Shadow replied. He glanced over her shoulder. "Watch it," he said calmly.

Rouge turned and smashed a clone in the chin with an uppercut before it could grab her.

"I mean, come on. We've been in worse than this," Shadow said He pulled his pistol out of its holster and shot a clone in between the eyes, spattering its brains across the pavement.

"Oh really? Like when?" asked Rouge. She broke away from Shadow briefly, dashing towards a clone and slamming it in the chest with a screw kick before gliding gracefully back towards Shadow.

"I don't know, I don't have time to think right now!" Shadow cried. He ducked as a clone swiped at his head, then crashed the butt of his gun against its forehead. The clone staggered backwards, clutching its face, and Shadow quickly rolled away from the sea of enemies.

"So," Shadow said slowly as the Chaos Clones encircled them, ready to move in for the kill.

"So what?" asked Rouge.

"Got any ideas how we're going to get out of here?"

Rouge shrugged. "You run. I fly," she said.

Shadow didn't even have to confirm that this was a good plan. They both took off simultaneously, Rouge shooting up into the air and Shadow disappearing with a flash of flames from his Air Shoes.

Rouge twisted, dived, and spun through the air as clones lunged at her from every angle, trying to drag her back down to the street. Her eyes darted about, looking for any sign of Shadow. There he was! She couldn't see his black fur in the darkness, only the light of his Air Shoes. He darted up a wall, backflipped off it, and swung up towards Rouge from a lamppost. She already knew what to do.

Rouge spun so that her back was facing Shadow, her legs outstretched behind her. Shadow uncurled himself from the ball he was in and grabbed hold of Rouge's ankles, and the bat swung him towards another two clones. Shadow smashed his feet into both clones' faces as he flew towards them, permanently damaging their brain tissues.

Shadow let himself fall onto his back after the dropkick, then rolled backwards onto his feet. The black hedgehog looked up towards the sky, scanning it for any sign of Rouge. Had she flown away? He couldn't see her at all. But then he realized that she wasn't in the sky. As his eyes traveled down, he noticed a clone perched atop a lamppost, clutching Rouge's left foot tightly. She was trying as hard as she could to wrench herself from its grip, but it continued to drag her downward.

Shadow rushed forward, rolling under lunging clones, leaping over piles of rubble, and shoving aside anything else that got in his way. The clone pulled Rouge into its grip, wrapping both arms around her and beginning to squeeze. Rouge smashed it in the face with a headbutt, but it did little to help.

"Hey!" Shadow shouted at the top of his lungs. The clone glanced down at Shadow, forgetting Rouge for a moment. The bat girl quickly brought her knee up into its stomach while it was distracted, then twisted out of its soft, clinging arms.

Shadow hopped up onto the back of a clueless Chaos Clone, then launched himself towards the one atop the lamppost, igniting his Air Shoes in midair to carry himself forward more. _Thwack!_ He brought his fist down to the side of the clone's head forcefully, almost knocking it off the lamppost. The clone grabbed hold of _him_ now, trying to break his spine in a bone-crushing bearhug.

Rouge flew back around to them, slamming her shoulder into the clone as she flew by. It wobbled, lost balance, and then plummeted to the street. Shadow pulled away from it, dashing through the crowd, following Rouge to the single safest area on the street– next to the few dozen marines and volunteers that Knuckles, Amy, and the Chaotix were leading.

"Well, at least we're all together now," said Knuckles, watching the Chaos Clones approach. "I guess that means we should get going."


	9. City in Chaos

"How far away is the rescue team supposed to be?" Rouge asked Knuckles, not taking her eyes off a Chaos Clone as it crept closer and closer towards the group of Freedom Fighters.

Knuckles pulled back one of his gloves, glancing at a digital mini-map strapped to his wrist. "A few blocks to the northwest," he said quietly, as if talking in a loud voice would make the clones lunge forward unexpectedly.

Rouge glanced back at the marines. "Everyone face outward," she called to them, "don't take your eyes off any clone. Head northwest."

Not needing a signal, the circle of skilled marines began stepping down the street, still facing outwards towards the clones. The cones of light from their Chaos Ray flashlights allowed spooky glimpses into the darkness, where some of them saw flashes of green eyes or glistening, liquid limbs. The only sounds that could be heard were the shuffling of feet against the road.

It was as though someone had dropped a bomb.

A car came hurtling towards the Freedom Fighters, hurled by at least four Chaos Clones. The circle of heroes dove to the sides, dodging the twisted hunk of metal and glass as it rolled through them. Most of them were able to get out of the way. Six of them became bloody smears against the pavement.

As quickly as they had parted, the marines regrouped, aimed outward, and began firing their Chaos Rays at the clones. The street became lit up with brilliant flashes of blue, green, red, white, and violet from the barrels of the guns, and a wall of colored energy surrounded the soldiers, impenetrable by any Chaos Clone that dared poke its slimy head out of the shadows.

The clones squirmed and writhed as they were struck with energy bolts, eventually melting into puddles of steaming jelly on the ground. The attack slowed, the flow of Chaos Clones thinned, and then the Freedom Fighters were alone on the deserted street.

"Come on! Let's move!" shouted Knuckles, sweating from fear and the sheer intensity of the battle. As the soldiers reached the end of the street, Knuckles commanded them to turn their flashlights off. "Rouge, you lead us. You've got echolocation," Knuckles said.

Rouge grudgingly agreed, nervous about being up ahead of the soldiers. Shadow followed her, sticking by her side as she led the troops through the city, stopping every so often to catch a small hint of noise reflecting off a building or sign.

"Am I still walking next to Rouge?" Shadow asked after a few more minutes of walking.

"Yeah," she replied, cocking her head to hear something Shadow couldn't.

"Sorry, I can't see anything," the black hedgehog muttered. He had been in dark places before and wasn't at all scotophobic, but being in a dark, ruined city packed full of Chaos Clones was genuinely frightening. The moon had disappeared behind the clouds, casting long shadows in alleys and in the windows of shops. Shadow clutched his pistol by his side, ready to bring it up and fire at anything that came lurching out of hiding.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, blinking.

"I have better hearing than you, Shadow. It's nothing," Rouge said, slightly agitated at her friend's fears.

"You're sure? I hear footsteps..."

"Probably coming from the troops behind us," said Rouge, glancing over her shoulder. The dull _thudding_ of their boots against the ground almost painted a picture of the band of fearful heroes in her mind.

Knuckles checked the mini-map on his wrist. "We're here," he said just loud enough for everyone in the group to hear them. Once everyone was still, the echidna raised his voice and called out, "Is anybody there? We've been sent to help you!"

_Screw this sneaking around. Where the hell is Tails anyway?_ Knuckles thought to himself.

"There!" cried a marine, pointing to a darkened figure standing in the doorway of an old store. The figure stepped out onto the street as if it weren't certain it was making the right decision. Then another silhouette climbed out, then another. The three figures and the large group of Freedom Fighters approached each other timidly until one of the marines flicked her flashlight on, shining the beam onto the three silhouettes.

Kyle, Connor, and Wave were standing in the light, exhausted and battered.

"Thank God," Connor said, grinning.

Then came the terror.

A marine was wrenched out of the group by an unseen enemy, shrieking as he was dragged along the ground towards an alleyway. A few other shouted and chased after him, breaking away from the others.

"Hey, wait! We have to stick together!" Knuckles shouted.

The marine flailed and fought back wildly, but continued to be pulled along the ground by a grotesquely extended arm that had crawled out of the alleyway. As he was swallowed up into the darkness, the other two marines screamed as well. A clone pounced out of the alley, catching one in its grasp before bounding out of sight again. The final man was wrenched into the darkness along with his comrade. A sickening _crunch_ floated out of the darkness, and the scuffling noises in the alley stopped.

"We've got to go," Vector shouted.

"We can't just leave them!" someone cried.

The clones took advantage of the fear they had created. The wall of a parking garage next to the Freedom Fighters bulged, cracked, and then exploded in a shower of debris. The heroes scattered, ducking for cover as bits of rock and concrete came hurtling through the air.

Torrents of clones issued forth from the gaping hole in the wall, scrambling over each other like frantic ants trying to reach a delicious picnic. The chilling silence was broken by frantic shouts and screams, and by the gurgling battle cries of Chaos Clones.

Shadow was one of the unlucky ones. A piece of debris, small thought it was, cracked him in the forehead, knocking him flat onto his back. His world spun, became hazy, and then passed into warm darkness.

Knuckles scrambled behind a large American Express mail drop box on the sidewalk, crouching behind it as the pieces of rubble pelted the metal. He poked his head out from cover to see the marines running frantically, trying to regroup, getting tripped, dragged away, or crushed by raging enemies. Brilliant flashes of light lit up the street as energy weapons were lit off.

In one of the flashes, Knuckles caught sight of the bulky human Connor, who was crouched protectively over a wounded Wave. They were the reason they had come down to the city, and he was going to make sure they got out safely.

Knuckles dove out from behind the mailbox, ducking, running, and leaping as deranged clones lunged at him and stray energy blasts seared past him. He crashed his spiked fist into a clone's face, causing its entire head to explode in a shower of brains and liquid Chaos Energy. The echidna crouched low and hurried through the battle zone, not taking his eyes away from Wave and the human.

"Are you alright?" Knuckles shouted over the high_ zap_ noises of the Chaos Rays and the crashes of exploding rubble.

Connor looked up at Knuckles, grimacing. "She's got a broken ankle. Can you get her to a ship safely?" he cried.

"I'll do my best. Are you alright, Wave?" Knuckles asked, wincing as another bright flash agitated his retinas.

"I'll manage, as long as you can get me out of here," Wave shouted back.

"Alright, let me pick you up..."

Connor gasped, his eyes widening as a clone loomed over them, one huge fist ready to flatten them.

_Kra-KOOM!_ A giant blast of energy blasted through the Chaos Clone, boiling its brains and evaporating its liquid body. Confused, Knuckles looked down the street to see none other than Tails, perched in his old and rather unstable looking _Cyclone_ walker.

The young fox guided the _Cyclone_ through the battle skillfully, spinning the cockpit to fling clones off and blasting others with the mini cannon attached to the front of it. Tails brought the walker to a stop next to Knuckles and wiped sweat away from his forehead. "Need some help?" he asked.

Knuckles smiled grimly. "Yeah, thanks," he said. He looked down at Wave, then back up at Tails. "Look, I know you just got here, but I need you to do something for me," he called to Tails.

"Sure, anything," replied Tails. He swivelled the _Cyclone_ cockpit around and shot another clone that was about to crush a marine's ribcage with a single punch.

Knuckles picked Wave up gently and hopped up on top of the _Cyclone_, setting her down in the small passenger's seat. "I need you to bring Wave back to our shuttle. She's hurt and won't last long here," he said. Knuckles hopped off the walker, then looked back up at Tails.

Tails nodded. "I'll be back after she's safe," he promised, then took off running down the street as fast as the old walker would allow.

Tails had gone no more than a few steps before he saw a familiar figure battling alone in the middle of the street.

Amy smashed her hammer into the knees of a clone, knocking its legs out from under it. Before it could get up she brought her weapon down again, crushing the creature's head.

Two more clones leapt forward, hoping to catch her off guard. Amy reached back and wrenched her old Chaos Ray off of the bandolier she had strapped around her shoulders, shooting one of the monsters out of the air. She lined up for another shot, but was too slow. The clone tackled her, knocking her Piko Piko hammer away and pinning her gun arm to the pavement.

Amy kneed the clone in the groin. It just blinked. Chaos Clones didn't have any especially sensitive areas like animaloids or humans did.

She tried to bend her wrist and get a clear shot at the clone's head, but to no avail.

The clone raised its fist, ready to bring it down and end her life in a single moment. Then a massive laser blast hit it in the side, blowing it into the wall of a building. Shocked, Amy sprang to her feet to see the _Cyclone _wobble over to her.

"Hi," Tails grinned, not knowing what else to say.

Amy blinked. "Um... hi, Tails," she said slowly.

"I need to take Wave back to the shuttles, we have to get out of here. Are you with me?" Tails asked, leaning outwards and glancing nervously up and down the street.

Amy shrugged and picked up her hammer, slinging it over one shoulder. "Sure, better than standing here and waiting to get killed," she said grimly.

They checked themselves to make sure everything was alright, turned, and hurried back towards the shuttles.

----------

**A/N: **Anyone reading this played Left 4 Dead? Me too. You could probably tell from this chapter.


	10. Attack on the ARK

Knuckles turned to survey the battle. It was, to put it quite simply, chaos. In the few minutes that the marines had gotten separated, the clones had managed to kill at least a quarter of them, and were hard at work dealing with the rest. A few small groups of them had managed to take shelter under buildings, but wouldn't last very long. Knuckles had to bring them together.

"Vector!" Knuckles shouted, seeing the crocodile and his team fighting in a small triangle.

"Yeah?" Vector asked, not stopping to look at Knuckles. He cracked his fist up under a clone's chin, then smacked another one behind him with his tail.

"Get back to the shuttles! I'm going to try and round up the rest of these marines and get them out of here!" cried Knuckles. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw a flicker of movement. He was too late to dodge the clone as it came flying at him, slamming its shoulder into his side.

Knuckles tumbled across the ground, managing to right himself in time to avoid smashing into a wall. He crouched low as the clone approached, ready for anything. It swept its giant arm across the ground, but Knuckles hopped over it agilely. The clone was about to try and hit Knuckles again when the echidna gripped the monster by the throat, spun around, and hurled it through a shop window.

Knuckles hurried back towards the battle, his breath coming in short gasps and his legs beginning to feel as heavy as lead. He saw Espio grab hold of both Vector and Charmy, then take off running back down the street.

_Hopefully they'll be safe_, Knuckles thought.

He hurried about the area, following blasts of energy back to groups of marines, brawling with ferocious clones, and helping wounded friends up from the ground. After only ten minutes, he had found twenty0seven marines and volunteer soldiers. That was all that was left.

"Okay, come on! This way!" Knuckles cried, heading in the direction the Chaotix and Tails had gone. _Where the hell are Rouge and Shadow? _Knuckles thought to himself. He unhooked a small radio from his belt and set it to Team Dark's frequency. "Rouge, Shadow! This is Knuckles, are either of you out there?" he called.

No answer.

"Dammit," Knuckles growled. He clipped the radio back into his belt and hurried back to the shuttles, leading the remaining troops onward. Then his radio began to buzz. Hoping that it was either Rouge or Shadow, Knuckles answered it eagerly. "Hello?" he asked. He flinched as a blast of energy shot past his head, blowing a hole through a clone that had been sprinting towards him.

"We've got a problem, Knuckles," Tails' frightened voice came through the static.

"What? What happened? Are Rouge and Shadow there?" Knuckles asked hurriedly.

"Um... yeah, I see Rouge flying around. But listen; some clones... they, uh... stole one of the shuttles," Tails said.

Knuckles gaped at the radio in his hand. "Wha– how the hell did they manage to fly it?" he cried, his head spinning.

"We don't know, but one of the shuttles was flying away when we got here. We think they're trying to fly back to the ARK."

Knuckles looked back at the marines and noticed that they were lagging behind him. "I'll be right there," he said, then switched the radio off. "Let's go, we're almost there!" Knuckles shouted to the soldiers. They picked up their pace slightly, but still walked as though they had concrete blocks instead of shoes.

They battled on through the streets until at last coming to the shuttles. The Knuckles' horror, the _Silent Ghost_ looked like the only one that might be able to fly. The rest practically had their hulls ripped open by Chaos Clones, and the _Ghost_ would suffer the same fate too, if they didn't hurry.

Knuckles and the marines plowed through the sea of clones, blasting, punching, striking, hitting them with the butts of their guns. Through the cockpit windshield, Knuckles could see Rouge at the controls, with Tails, Amy, Wave, and the Chaotix behind her.

The entry ramp literally fell open as they approached, flattening about four clones. Knuckles waited until every other marine was inside before hurrying into the _Ghost _as well.

"Where's Shadow?" Rouge cried as Knuckles entered the cockpit.

"What? I thought he was with you!" Knuckles blinked, alarmed.

The two treasure hunters stared at each other for a moment, then simultaneously scrambled for their radios.

"Shadow? Shadow, are you out there?" Rouge shouted into her radio.

A few blocks away, just beginning to pick himself up from the rubble, was a black and red striped hedgehog. Shadow staggered to his feet, clutching the bloody gash on his head where the rubble had hit him.

"Shadow, are you out there?" he heard Rouge's voice hiss through the static of his radio.

"I don't know, Rouge. I don't think he could survive that long alone out there..." Vector's voice said in the background.

"I'm here," Shadow croaked into his own radio, trying his best to remain standing. He looked around, confused at the empty area around him.

"Shadow! Listen, we have to leave, we think the clones stole one of the shuttles!" Rouge said.

Shadow blinked away the remnants of his blackout, trying to make sense of things. "Um... yeah, sure," he said, rubbing his eyes. "Where are you guys?"

"On the _Ghost_. We have to go _now_, Shadow. Hurry!"

Shadow grunted in affirmation and clipped the radio back into his belt. He reached for his holster for his pistol, but it wasn't there. _Oh, well. I was going to lose it some day or another_, Shadow thought. He crouched down and activated his Air Shoes, kicking off from the pile of debris and shooting down the street. Buildings and clones blurred past him, and after only a few seconds he could see the _Silent Ghost _hovering in midair, the entry hatch open for him and half a dozen Chas Clones pounding on the hull.

Acting quickly and fluidly, Shadow leaped up onto an unaware clone's head, kicked off its liquid face, and soared through the air towards the extended entry ramp. He just barely managed to snag the edge with his fingertips, and clambered frantically to climb inside.

To his surprise, Tails was waiting for him. The young fox had apparently abandoned his _Cyclone_ walker to enter the ship quicker. "Come on, Shadow, climb up!" Tails cried, gripping the hedgehog by the arm and helping him scramble up into the shuttle. Once they were both safely inside, Tails pressed a button on the side of the ramp, and it slowly sealed itself shut.

Tails and Shadow stumbled into the cockpit as Rouge jerked the _Ghost_ to the right, attempting to throw the stubborn clones off of the hull.

"They're still holding on!" she cried.

"It doesn't matter, just fly us back up to the ARK! We have to try and stop that shuttle... which one was it?" Knuckles asked.

"Yours, the _Fist_," Rouge spat angrily.

Knuckles slapped one of his large hands over his face. "Oh, no. No, no, no... my ship had an autopilot setting on it that would fly it back up the ARK from Earth. That must be how those things are flying it," he moaned.

"How many clones are in it?" asked Vector, gripping the wall as a clone smashed the hull outside.

"Don't know. Lots, I'm guessing," said Tails.

The _Ghost_ soared up above the rooftops, spinning and lurching to try and throw the Chaos Clones off it. Soon the small, glowing dot in the night sky became larger until the heroes in the _Ghost_ could make out the outline of the _Iron Fist_. The shuttle was spinning and corkscrewing wildly, but was on a steady course toward the ARK.

Suddenly a freezing, piercing gale rushed into the cockpit, practically throwing one of the marines against the control board with its sheer strength. In the metal corridor leading into and out of the cockpit, a Chaos Clone began to squeeze through the space it had torn in the hull, forcing the crack wider and wider. The icy chill of the lower stratosphere screamed into the shuttle, stealing the heat from everyone's very bones.

"Close the cockpit door!" Rouge roared over the shrieking wind. Charmy, of all people, buzzed forward, holding his helmet on his head, and slapped one of his hands against the security door lock. A thick, metal door slammed shut, cutting off the thin air of the upper atmosphere and locking the Chaos Clone out.

"Knuckles, convert all power to the engine thrusters," Rouge ordered, glancing at the top of the windshield. A clone flickered in and out of view.

"That could blow one of the thrusters..." Knuckles protested.

"Do it, we'll be dead in a few minutes unless we can reach the ARK hangar anyway. Do it," said Rouge.

Knuckles hesitated, then did as she commanded, turning three small dials on the control board off and flipping the last one all the way up. The lights dimmed in the cockpit, and the engine thrusters roared with the surge of power. The _Ghost _shot forward in a streak of light, growing closer and closer to the ARK with every second.

"Slow down, Rouge! I don't know if this thing can take as much abuse as the _Avenger_!" Vector cried fearfully.

The security door shuddered as the clone outside threw itself against it. There was a screech of twisting metal, and the hole in the hull became wider. Another clone dropped inside the _Ghost_ and began attacking the security door, intent on getting inside.

A clone that had just noticed that the windshield was unguarded finally froze from the sheer cold, it hands breaking off from its arms. The frozen clone plummeted back towards Earth, its frozen body pinwheeling through the air.

The antennae bristling from the underside of the ARK were visible by then, the white square of light that was the hangar just a few hundred meters away. The doors were open– they were about to let the clones inside.

"Everyone hang on," Rouge shouted as the _Iron Fist _landed in the hangar.

Barely slowing down, Rouge smashed the _Ghost _into the hangar, the bottom of the shuttle crunching audibly as it was crushed against the floor. The shuttle skidded across the floor with an ear-splitting _screech_, and the hangar doors slammed to with an ominous _bang_.

The _Fist_ practically exploded. The windshield shattered, releasing dozens upon dozens of Chaos Clones, more volume than the shuttle was supposed to even hold. The entry ramp crashed open and more poured out, scrabbling over each other like a waterfall.

The ARK was practically devoid of protection. Almost all of the foot soldiers had joined the disastrous battle down on Earth, and there were only a few dozen left. As the clones barreled through the hangar and into the corridors, spreading throughout the hangar level of the ARK, there was almost nobody to contain them.

Knuckles punched through the windscreen and clambered out of the ruined _Silent Ghost_, followed by a battered Tails, Rouge, and Shadow.

"So, uh, do we have a plan now?" asked Tails, clutching a spot on his skull that had been slammed against the ceiling of the _Ghost_ upon their landing.

Knuckles glanced at the lighting strips stretching across the ceiling, then blinked at Tails. "I think so, yeah," he said. "But I'm going to need all of your help."

"Alright, what is it?" Shadow asked.

Knuckles beckoned for them to follow him. "I'll tell you on the way, come on!" he cried.

"So do you guys remember that machine Eggman built at the beginning of the war, that could harness to power of the Master Emerald and destroy the Chaos Clones?" Knuckles asked as they pounded through the corridors of the ARK, hurrying to get to the living quarters.

"Yeah, it got destroyed years ago," Rouge said, huffing as she ran.

"Right. But listen: I think that we might be able to replace the power core of this station with the Master Emerald, with me guiding its power so that it will overload the Chaos Clones with energy. If it works, it'll have the same effect that Eggman's old machine did..." Knuckles trailed off.

"And bathe all the clones with energy!" Tails blinked in wonder. His twin tails were rotating at high speeds to keep up with Rouge and Knuckles. Shadow was easily keeping up with them, running a little ways ahead even.

"Right. Here's the elevator shaft," Knuckles said, skidding to a halt. There was no door blocking the dark shaft, and the elevator wasn't at that level either. In fact, Knuckles could see it far below them.

"This is where we come in, I'm guessing?" Rouge asked, frowning. She never liked it when she had to help people fly around.

"Yeah," Knuckles grunted. "Let's go, we don't have any time to waste."

But even as they made their way up the elevator shaft, the clones spread through the ARK like a virus. They broke through walls, slithered up elevator shafts, and destroyed maintenance tunnels.

Amy swiftly delivered two blows to the face of a clone, then kicked it to the floor. Before it could get up she leapt over it and continued running down the hall, hurriedly trying to reach the living quarters. She hurried into an elevator and pressed a button marked _Living Q 2_, forgetting to brace herself for the sudden rush of kinetic energy that almost hurled her to the floor. She had to make sure that Cream and Vanilla were alright. The elevator bucked as two clone grabbed hold of the underside, hitching a ride up with her. Amy, however, didn't notice.

While the Chaos Clones tore up the levels below them, Knuckles, Tails, Rouge, and Shadow soared up through the darkened elevator shaft, trying to reach the Master Emerald before the Chaos Clones figured out how to reach another level of the ARK.

"Here!" Shadow shouted when they reached the fifth level of the ARK. Rouge and Tails flung Shadow and Knuckles into the corridor, then landed softly themselves.

"We're almost there, this way!" Knuckles shouted, hurrying down the corridor. He rounded a corner and slid to a sudden stop in front of the metal door to his living quarters. He rushed inside, not caring that the door practically cracked the wall it slammed against after he threw it open. Knuckles knelt down, lifted up the rough bedsheets covering his cot, and pulled out the Master Emerald, gleaming in the pale light.

"Alright, so we have it. Does anyone know where the power core is?" asked Shadow.

Tails blinked. "Um... I think it's on the lowest level," he said tentatively.

"No time to check," Rouge said grimly, following Knuckles as he ran out of the room and hurried back to the elevator shaft. "Jump or fly?" she asked, looking at Knuckles.

He shrugged. "Both, I guess. I can glide down, you and Tails just worry about Shadow," he said. Then he leapt into the elevator shaft, letting himself plummet downwards fearlessly. Tails followed, along with Rouge, who was holding a humiliated looking Shadow under the armpits.

Knuckles frowned as they fell. _What's that sound?_ he thought, cocking his head to the side. His question was answered when he looked down.

"Everyone move!" Knuckles tried to shout. His voice was drowned out by the rush of air and the screaming of the elevator as it rapidly approached them, but the others noticed as well.

Rouge caught herself with her wings and shot out of the elevator shaft and into another corridor, still carrying Shadow. Tails flew to the eastern side of the elevator shaft, a large space where the elevator couldn't possibly hit him. Knuckles, however, wasn't as lucky as his friends.

The echidna smashed his knuckle spikes into the metal wall, skidding down the shaft before coming to a halt. He glanced down. The elevator was getting closer, and would surely hit him if he didn't do something soon.

Knuckles pulled back a fist and smashed it into a metal panel on the wall then tore it off. He frantically pulled at the wires underneath, tearing them out and throwing them away, desperately trying to make a hiding space. The elevator was only a hundred yards away.

Knuckles tucked himself into the tiny space, curling around the Master Emerald and ignoring the jolts he was getting from the ends of torn wires. The elevator roared past him, missing his face by mere inches. As it passed, Knuckles was able to catch a glimpse of a half dozen bewildered Chaos Clones standing in the elevator.

They needed to hurry.

"Knuckles!" Tails shouted from above.

"Are you two still alive?" Rouge called down from up higher.

"I'm okay!" Knuckles cried, untangling himself from the wires and slipping down the side of the elevator shaft, still clutching the Master Emerald. He sighed. "That was close," he muttered.

They glided down the rest of the way, landing with soft _thuds_ on a catwalk at the bottom of the elevator shaft.

"There it is," breathed Tails, pointing ahead towards a large, glowing power battery at the end of the catwalk.

"Come on," Knuckles said, holding the emerald out in front of him for light and leading them ahead. They sprinted to the end of the catwalk, out of breath and filled with fear.

"Are you sure this will work?" asked Shadow as he and Knuckles gripped the giant power battery, twisting it and ripping it free from its plug. In the levels above, the lights cut out, leaving everything in pitch blackness.

"It should," said Tails, watching nervously as Knuckles replaced the power battery with the Master Emerald. The emerald sparkled with green light, and power seemed to return to the ARK. To the confusion of the Chaos Clones and Freedom Fighters alike, the lights were emanating a soft, green glow now.

Knuckles pressed his palms against the emerald and closed his eyes. _Chaos is power_, he thought slowly, bending the energies of the emerald with his own willpower, channeling them through the ARK. _Power is enriched by the heart. You are the heart. You can enrich the power. Enrich it, overload it. Destroy our enemies_.

The Master Emerald whispered back to Knuckles, _Too much. Not enough energy_.

_Please_, Knuckles begged, _you have to try_.

The power from the emerald swelled, brightening the dark chamber with a brilliant, green light. In the levels above, clones stopped in their tracks, blinked, and began writhing in place. Up in the second level living quarters, Clones began to collapse even as Amy fought to keep them away from the door to Vanilla and Cream's room. They fought like wild beasts, trying to go on, to continue killing, to complete what they had come here for. But the power was too much for them. The green light became blinding, and in a flash, the Chaos Clones had been reduced to steaming puddles on the floor.

The Master Emerald guttered bright, like a candle before its flame was extinguished, then its power failed. The ARK was once again plunged into darkness.

----------

**A/N: **Well, the next couple chapters switch back to Sonic and his... goings-on... if that's what you'd call it.


	11. The Home Stretch

Darkness. Warm, wet, and black. Wet and warm? Sonic was immediately reminded of blood. But he realized it couldn't be, blood was red, and he was submerged in inky blackness. Then hushed voices, whispering and murmuring to each other.

"Is he alright...?"

"Will he make it...?"

"He's stabilized..."

Was he dead? Had Sonic died?

The veil of darkness slowly lifted, and a harsh white light stung his retinas. Heaven? No, just a flashlight beam. Someone was shining a flashlight in his face.

"He's the one?" asked a gruff voice.

"Sir, please, take the light out of his face," said another, calmer voice.

The gruff voice grunted, and the light disappeared. "He's awake," the voice said.

The blurry murkiness finally disappeared from Sonic's vision, and he saw the evening sky of a city, the stars masked behind an orange haze of light pollution. His head hurt.

"What..." Sonic croaked slowly. His voice was nothing but a low groan.

"Are you alright?" asked the calm voice. A figure leaned forward, revealing the voice to belong to a medic from an ambulance.

"I think so," Sonic said, sitting up. He'd been laid down on a stretcher outside the museum, with a large bandage slapped over the bloody gash on his forehead. The memories came flooding back to him. The theft of the Astrum Emerald from Henri the Tomcat, Apollo's ambush, Silver being wounded. Sonic had to try and follow Apollo, or at least get back to Blaze and tell het what had happened.

He slid off the stretcher and tried to start running.

"Sir," said the medic.

_Clack_. Sonic nearly tripped as his arm was caught on the stretcher, wrenching him back. He turned and saw in surprise that he was handcuffed to the stretcher.

"We've got a few questions for you, and would rather you didn't run off," said the gruff voice. Sonic turned to see that it belonged to a police officer, a brown-haired, middle-aged Basset hound.

_Oh, no_, Sonic thought. Despite his notoriety as a member of organized crime, Henri had gone to the police after the heist at his home. The nerve of him! How could he be sure that the police wouldn't discover that Henri had stolen the emerald from the museum in the first place?

Sonic waited while the cop talked to the medics, trying to think of what to do. His mind was blank. The dull throbbing in his forehead didn't help either. Sonic let the cop unshackle him from the stretcher and cuff both his hands, ignoring the Basset hound cop as he dully recited Sonic's Miranda Rights.

What was he going to do? The most sensible thing would be to return to Blaze, but would that risk bringing the police to her doorstep? No, he decided, Silver was a fugitive too now.

Sonic finally settled on a plan as the cop led him to a police cruiser waiting by the curb. Luckily for him, there were no news teams outside the museum yet, and hardly any people gathered around.

Just before the cop was about to push Sonic into the backseat of the police vehicle, Sonic turned to the dog and smiled at him.

"Anyone tell you that you're really good-looking?" he asked.

The cop stared at him, bewildered and distracted for a moment. "What?"

_Snap!_ Sonic easily broke free of the handcuffs, his right fist a blur. It cracked against the cop's teeth and the bewildered cop squawked in pain, dropping to the sidewalk.

The cop in the driver's seat of the car let out a startled cry and opened the door, but Sonic quickly kicked it shut again, smashing the man's fingers between the door and the frame. The blue hedgehog ignored the howls of pain and alarmed shouts of ambulance medics and shot off like a bullet.

Moving faster than the eye could see Sonic bounded off a wall, ricocheting up and over the police cruiser. If it were any other circumstance, Sonic would likely have stopped for a split second to gloat at the astounded crowd of people. But he didn't, instead zipping straight down the street, curling into a ball, and then shooting off faster than the speed of sound.

* * *

"How's your shoulder doing?" Blaze asked, grimly looking at the bandages over Silver's right shoulder.

Silver grimaced at the wound. "It hurts," he grumbled, touching the thickly wrapped bandages gingerly. "I never want to get shot again."

Blaze glanced around her apartment, almost sadly, looking at the mess that cleaning up Silver had made. There were small, rust colored stains dotting the carpeting, and the kitchen counter top was still wet with blood. But it wasn't the mess that set Blaze in the depressed mood, it was the fact that Silver– her best friend and a law-abiding, justice-upholding citizen– had become a fugitive on the run from the law. And all because of a mistake that Sonic had made.

She didn't blame Sonic. No, not at all, he couldn't have comprehended the consequences of his actions at all. Neither could Blaze.

"Where are you going to go now?" Blaze asked Silver, looking at her friend. She couldn't recognize him save for his eyes. He had taken rather drastic measures to alter his appearance, dying the quills on his entire body black and shortening his forehead spikes so that they were almost nonexistent.

"Well... I can't stay here," Silver said, "I'm surprised the police haven't shown up yet to ask you about me."

Blaze nodded solemnly. "I hope Sonic is alright, wherever he is," she said. No sooner had she said that, there was a short buzzing noise from the doorbell intercom next to the door. Blaze strode over to it and pressed the button on the speaker. "Hello?"

"Blaze, it's Sonic, I gotta get in," Sonic's voice came through the speaker. He sounded like he was breathing heavy.

Blaze was startled. "Sonic? What are you still doing here?" she asked, bewildered.

"I can't explain out here, let me in!" Sonic hissed desperately.

Blaze buzzed him in, and half a second later the door swung open and Sonic barged inside.

"Sonic, why are you still here? What happened?" Blaze gasped.

Sonic buried his face in his hands. "Apollo happened. That bastard," he groaned, complete and utter frustration overcoming him. He looked up. "Apollo caught wind of our plan to rob Henri," he said. "He was waiting and ambushed me at the museum before I could warp away. He... he took the Chaos Emeralds." Then Sonic seemed to notice Silver for the first time, and jumped. "Woah," he blinked. "I didn't recognize you for a second."

Blaze looked horrified. "Why would he take the Chaos Emeralds? He can't use them, can he?" she asked, aghast.

"No, he can't. He just did it for fun, to watch our dimensions destroy each other," said Sonic bitterly.

"Then how do we get them back? What do we do?" asked Silver.

Blaze passed a hand over her brow. "God. And the Pantheon will be hunting for you when they hear that you aren't gone," she said.

"And the cops! I had to knock two of them out to escape from the museum, Henri went to the police!" cried Sonic.

Silver grimaced, then glanced uneasily at Blaze. "So what do we do, Blaze?" he asked nervously. Sonic was looking at her expectantly too.

But Blaze wasn't looking at either of them. She wasn't even paying attention. She was trapped in her own thoughts, racking her mind for memories or clues or anything that could help them. Then she looked up at Sonic and Silver, uncertain and fearful. "We should all probably take a seat," she said slowly.

"We don't really have time to get settled, Blaze, we've got to make a plan or something!" Sonic protested.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" snapped Blaze. "We aren't going to think of one in just two seconds, so calm down and sit down!"

Sonic took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Fine, fine," he muttered, reluctantly sitting down on the sofa. Silver followed suit, sitting next to him.

"So... what?" Silver asked, glancing at Blaze, then at Sonic.

"I don't know. I don't know where to begin looking. He doesn't have any connections or relatives, no job, nothing," sighed Blaze.

"We could look in the slums and places like that. That's where Sonic found him first, and he needs people to live off of. What better victims than impoverished or homeless people?" suggested Silver.

"That would take ages. Sonic's already been here for almost a month, our dimensions should start absorbing each other any time now," Blaze said, grimacing.

Sonic was silent, not even listening to them. He was trying to think of something, anything, that would help them find Apollo. Which direction could he have gone when he escaped the museum? What had he done with the Chaos Emeralds?

"_Don't be afraid..._"

Sonic blinked and looked up at Silver and Blaze. "Of what?" he asked, frowning.

Blaze looked at him oddly. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I heard one of you say..." Sonic trailed off, and suddenly a new memory came into his head. His old nightmares, in which the red, glowing pair of eyes would leer at him out of the darkness. Dyamisius. Or at least its spirit, Dyamisius' physical form had been destroyed six years ago.

"I didn't say anything to you," said Silver, frowning.

"Me neither," said Blaze.

"No, no, I know, I think I just remembered something else," Sonic said slowly.

"Are you okay?" asked Blaze.

"I'm fine. It's those nightmares I told you about before, remember? Dyamisius, and how part of his spirit is still inside me?" Sonic turned to Blaze, his eyes widening with realization.

"Yeah, what does that have to do with finding Apollo?" Silver asked.

"Everything! Dyamisius is in Apollo too, and we can feel each other! That's probably how he knew about me Chaos Controlling here in the first place," Sonic explained.

"And you think you can find him?" asked Blaze, beginning to understand.

"Maybe," Sonic said, nodding slowly.

"Well try it then! Go ahead!" said Silver eagerly, gesturing for Sonic to try and find Apollo through their connection.

"Now?" asked Sonic.

"Oh, no, how about you try in next week? Yes, now!" scowled Silver.

"Okay," Sonic said, unsure if he could do it. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on Apollo and the eyes from his nightmares, attempting to remember the sensation of being trapped inside the Dyamisius' cloud form while blood red lightning sapped away at his energy.

Suddenly his eyes seemed to open, and he found himself walking through a crowd of people on a sidewalk. His gaze shifted to a female falcon, then to a short, stocky pig wearing a backpack. But it wasn't him controlling his actions. He was just a passenger sitting behind the eyes of this person, enjoying the ride. Was he seeing through Apollo's eyes?

Sonic opened his eyes, and found himself back in Blaze's apartment.

"Did it work? What did you see?" asked Blaze.

"It worked all right, Sonic said, getting up and hurrying over to a window in the wall. He looked out over the city, trying to recognize any of the buildings he had seen through Apollo's eyes. Out on the horizon was a tall, wide building with a large sign on it reading "Solstice Station". Had he seen that building through Apollo's vision? He was certain he had.

"I know where he is, come on!" Sonic shouted.

"Alright, but don't– hey, wait!" Blaze cried. But it was too late, Sonic had already disappeared out the door and peeled off in pursuit of his enemy.

------

**A/N: **Alright, um, here's the thing. I'm not sure you'll be satisfied with what I was originally planning to have for the next chapter, so I think I'll ask this: would you prefer Sonic to go home next chapter and get this over with, or should I extend it a little more despite the fact that the extension won't really have a point?


	12. Collapse

Sonic dashed through the streets, weaving between pedestrians and leaping over vehicles. He leaped onto the hood of a car, then bounded upwards, grabbing hold of a lamppost and swinging off of it. He sailed through the air, then landed on a rooftop, rolling over one shoulder onto a knee to soften the impact. Sonic ignored the fact that he was abandoning Blaze and Silver. He was consumed with anger, intent on reaching Apollo and making him pay.

Sonic leaped from rooftop to rooftop, soaring high over the city streets. On the way he paused for a few moments, trying to concentrate and find Apollo once more. He discovered that it didn't even take his "remote viewing" ability to find him when he was close enough– he could feel Apollo's presence. The closer he came, the stronger a strange tingling sensation at the base of his skull became. It was as though he had his own personal radar built right into his body.

Finally the tingling became so powerful that it was almost painful. Sonic forced it to the back of his mind, scanning the streets with his eyes now. Nothing, no sign of orange at all. Sonic was about to move along when he heard a familiar voice down in the alleyway below him.

"Nothing."

It was one word, but it was a voice that Sonic could never forget. Apollo.

Sonic leaned forward and peered down into the darkness, seeing the silhouette of the orange hedgehog standing in the alley, hunched over a lifeless, shriveled corpse. Apollo's latest victim. What did "nothing" mean? Was he becoming so dependant on energy from other beings that normal people couldn't sustain him any longer?

Apollo stood up, sneering at the corpse in disgust. "Guess I should have expected it from a whore," he muttered, brushing himself off as though he'd been contaminated.

Sonic positioned himself carefully at the edge of the building, then dropped down into the alleyway, directly behind Apollo. With two swift motions, he kicked the back of the orange hedgehog's knee, then snaked his arm around Apollo's neck when Apollo had fallen to his knees.

Bewildered by the sudden attack, Apollo lashed out at Sonic frantically, elbowing him in the hip. But Sonic held fast, backing up and dragging the orange hedgehog back into the alley.

"Got you, you son of a bitch," he snarled, pinning Apollo's arms and turning him around so that they were face to face.

Apollo blinked in confusion for a moment, then grinned. "Blue hedgehog, you found me!" he laughed, as though they'd been playing a game of hide-and-seek.

Furious, Sonic slammed Apollo into the side of the wall, shaking a few bricks loose. "Give me the Chaos Emeralds!" he shouted.

"Oh, you're angry now, aren't you?" Apollo mocked Sonic. He tried to pull one of his arms free from Sonic's grip, but Sonic held fast to him.

"Give me them, Apollo!" Sonic roared, his hatred for the orange hedgehog bubbling up from the depths of his soul like hot magma issuing forth from a volcano.

"Look at me. Do I look like I still have them?" snarled Apollo, becoming frustrated with his inability to break out of Sonic's grip. After all, he was the stronger of the two, wasn't he?

"What did you do with them?" Sonic shouted, slamming Apollo against the wall again.

Apollo just stared at him as though he were speaking an alien language.

"Answer me!"

"Or what?"

"I'll..." Sonic stopped. What could he do? Did Apollo really mind pain? Probably not. Did he mind death? Probably, but Sonic could never bring himself to kill another person in cold blood, even one as evil as Apollo.

"That's right. You've got nothing, blue hedgehog. That's why you always lose and I always win. You aren't ruthless enough to beat me," Apollo said matter-of-factly.

Sonic shoved Apollo up against the wall again, snarling in anger. But he didn't do anything other than that.

"Look at you. You don't have it in you," Apollo laughed.

The loose bricks in the wall behind Apollo finally came out, tumbling to the ground. At first Sonic thought it was just gravity. Then he began to feel faint vibrations under his feet, growing stronger with every passing second.

Apollo looked around, grinning. "Oh, the fun's about to start, blue hedgehog. You really don't want to leave yet," he chuckled.

A thundering crash echoed through the streets, and Sonic heard screams swell up from the crowds of people on the sidewalks. Then dust and debris came hurtling by on the street, sweeping into the alleyway and obscuring Sonic's vision.

_Wham!_

In the confusion, Apollo pulled away from Sonic and kneed him in the groin powerfully, sending the blue hedgehog to his knees.

What was happening? What was this? Questions poured into Sonic's mind just as debris continued to pour down into the streets in a massive tidal wave of glass, steel and concrete.

"Apollo!" Sonic shouted, clambering to his feet and squinting through the dust. He forgot about the pain and rushed into the street. "Apollo!" he roared again. Then he blinked. "Jesus," he muttered, seeing the ruins of the collapsed building that had caused the debris. It was more than three blocks away, but still the cloud of dirt and dust had reached them.

Then he saw him, a faint silhouette running through the grey haze. Apollo didn't wish to fight. He wanted to sit back and enjoy the fun as the Sol Dimension began falling apart. And it was falling apart.

Another tremor ran through the ground, splitting the streets open and shaking buildings to their very foundations. Dark clouds rolled in over the skies, beginning to flash with bolts of white lightning.

Sonic tensed his leg muscles and sprinted forward, easily over coming Apollo. He tackled his foe to the ground, then gripped him by the back of the head and savagely smashed the orange hedgehog's face into the pavement.

Apollo bellowed in pain and swung his arm back, elbowing Sonic in the ribs. Sonic rolled off him, then leapt to his feet, waiting for Apollo to make his next move.

Apollo picked himself up, wiping blood away from a gash that had split open in his forehead. Then he nodded at Sonic and crouched slightly, raising his fists in a fighting position. "Alright, blue hedgehog. Alright," he said. Then he lunged forward, feigning an uppercut to Sonic's chin.

Sonic jumped backwards, careful to avoid Apollo's powerful fists. Apollo aimed for a right cross at his jaw, but Sonic blocked it, then landed two quick jab's to Apollo's chest. While the orange hedgehog was off balance Sonic leaped into the air, snapping his leg out and cracking his heel against Apollo's temple in a reverse roundhouse.

Apollo was sent careening into a wall, slightly dazed from the blow. He ducked to the side as Sonic struck out at him again, then slammed his fist into Sonic's stomach.

Sonic's body lurched and he staggered backwards, clutching his gut. He quickly rolled backwards, dodging another attack. He had always brashly attempted to match himself with Apollo in strength, but now he decided to play it safe. He ducked and dodged every punch and kick, moving impossibly fast, trying to tire Apollo out. And it was working.

In his growing frustration, Apollo was attacking Sonic more and more savagely, oblivious to the fact that he was beginning to slow down.

"You look tired, Apollo. Wanna take a break for an hour?" snickered Sonic. Keep making him angry. Keep tiring him out.

Apollo took Sonic by surprise, lunging forward and gripping him in a bearhug. "No," he grunted, too angry and tired to say anything else. He began to squeeze, bending Sonic backwards dangerously far.

Sonic struggled, but Apollo had his arms pinned. A white bolt of pain shot up his back. Any moment now his spine would break, unless he did something quick.

_Crack!_

Sonic swung his forehead down, headbutting Apollo in the nose. Apollo let go of him and staggered away from him, one hand flying up to his face. Sonic could see a red stain spreading slowly across his white glove, blood dropping from between his fingers. Sonic didn't feel all that great either. He had never headbutted anyone before, and felt as though someone had hit him in the forehead with a hammer.

Sonic barely had time to recover, however. Apollo quickly sprang towards Sonic and punched him hard in the chest, fueled on by his anger. Sonic retreated, his arms flying to block Apollo's blows. There were a few openings, where Sonic was able to hit Apollo with a couple short, quick strikes, but that was all.

Frustrated by Sonic's speed, Apollo unexpectedly gripped Sonic under the armpits and whirled around, hurling him down the street. Sonic sailed through the air, desperately tried to right himself, but failed. He hit the pavement with a painful jolt, rolling backwards onto his feet to reduce the impact.

Apollo was about to pursue him when a white-hot fireball struck the ground in front of him. He jumped in surprise, and whirled around to see Burning Blaze touch down on the street.

"Hello again, Blaze," he said, flashing her a mock grin. But he backed up slowly, knowing that he had no chance of beating Blaze in this form.

"Just give us the Chaos Emeralds, Apollo," Blaze scowled, moving closer to him. The pavement hissed and became soft under her flaming feet.

"I don't have them anymore. I tried to tell your friend, but he just attacked me," Apollo said innocently, glancing back at Sonic.

"Then where are they?" Sonic asked, approaching Apollo from behind.

Apollo glanced lazily at him, then at Blaze. Then he crouched down and leaped into the air, soaring up to one of the nearest rooftops.

Sonic was about to give chase when Blaze said, "Wait."

Sure enough, Apollo came hurtling down to the street seconds later. Silver slowly descended after him, telekinetically lowering himself to the ground.

Apollo growled and climbed from the crack in the ground his body had made. He looked at all three of them, his eyes shining wit sheer hatred. But he knew that if he fought, he wouldn't last very long.

"I'll give you a hint," he said to Sonic. "What do you hate?"

Sonic growled and stepped forward, gripping Apollo by the shoulders. "I don't have time for this, Apollo. Tell us where they are!" he shouted.

Apollo stared at him.

Sonic raised his fist and was about to hit Apollo in the face when he stopped. If he could see through Apollo's eyes, than would it be possible for him to see into his mind? Sonic stared into Apollo's eyes, trying to look past them.

_Where are they?_ he asked with his mind.

The only answer he got was a small _plip_, as if water were dripping from a sink faucet.

Sonic's eyes widened. Had that been a response. He stared deeper into Apollo's blue eyes, and suddenly an image accompanied the noise. A wide, blue body of water. Water.

_What do you hate?_

Sonic hated water. He couldn't swim. He let go of Apollo, and the vision faded away.

"He threw it into a... lake, or something," Sonic said.

Apollo smirked. "See if you can get it out, blue hedgehog," he said.

Sonic snarled and threw Apollo back to the street, then turned to Blaze and Silver. "Water," he said. "What's the closest place where we could find water?"

"The only lake near the city is in the Memorial Park, but..." Blaze trailed off.

"Then come on, we have to go!" Sonic cried. He zipped off before Blaze could stop him.

Southern City was in turmoil. Earthquakes were shaking the ground, and buildings were tumbling throughout the city. Sonic found himself dodging between falling chunks of rubble and fleeing cars. The Sol Dimension was beginning to crumble.

Sonic skidded to a halt in the middle of Memorial Park. People were running helter-skelter, panicking. As Sonic stepped forward, he noticed that the tall, grand statue of the late King Flare, Blaze's father, had been toppled to the ground. But he had no time to grieve over the losses the city was suffering. If he stayed the destruction would continue until the entire planet split apart. If he left, everything would– or at least, _should_– go back to normal.

Sonic approached the large lake in the park, grimacing. A film of mud had caked over the surface from the settling dust, obscuring any faint glimmer of light from the emeralds that would show them where it was.

"Sonic, you have got to stop doing that!" cried Blaze as she and Silver landed in the park behind him.

"Are you sure this is the only place where they could be?" Sonic asked, turning to her.

"Yes, almost positive! But we don't know how to get them out!" said Blaze.

"Yeah we do! Silver can pull them out of the water wit his psychic powers!" Sonic said.

"Telekinetic," Silver corrected, "and no, I can't. I could if I saw them, but if I don't know where exactly they are, I'll just end up pulling out bubbles of water."

"Well can't you get them then?" Sonic asked Blaze.

"Why not you?" scowled Silver.

"I... I can't swim," Sonic said.

"I can't either, water just... well, it makes me feel weak," Blaze said slowly.

"Then Silver, you swim down there and get them," Sonic said.

"I can't swim with a bullet hole through my shoulder," protested Silver indignantly.

"You were doing fine just flying around and throwing Apollo into the air!"

"With my mind, not my body! And it still hurts!"

"Alright, both of you just stop bickering!" Blaze shouted, glaring at her two friends.

Sonic and Silver quieted down, but still glared at each other. "Well then what do we do?" asked Silver after a long period of silence.

Sonic looked at Blaze, then at Silver, then at the crumbling city. Then he said, "I'll do it."

Blaze frowned at Sonic. "You're sure?" she asked slowly. She wouldn't try to convince him otherwise, but still worried for him.

"Yeah. I can probably hold my breath long enough to grab them and warp out of here," said Sonic, trying to sound casual. Inside, however, his stomach churned. He nodded and slowly strode over to the side of the lake, staring at the murky surface. Then he shrugged nonchalantly. "So, uh, if you see a bright flash or something, you'll know I left," he said.

Silver and Blaze both nodded. "Bye, Sonic," Blaze said.

"See you," Silver muttered, scratching his head.

Sonic stared at them awkwardly for a moment. "Yeah," he said slowly. Then he took a deep breath and jumped into the water.

His entire body tensed at the icy coldness of the water. After a few moments he became accustomed to it, and he opened his eyes to look around. It was darker than he had expected it to be. Sonic looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of his old knapsack that he had used to carry the Chaos Emeralds. But the dark, brown water obscured everything. He could hardly even see his hand as he reached out and tried to dog paddle forward. But no matter what he did, his body still sank like a stone.

Sonic's chest tightened. He needed air, and quickly. He wasn't used to holding his breath very long. He thrashed in the waters frantically, trying to claw his way back up to the surface, but to no avail. Finally he stopped. _Calm down_, he told himself. _Just find the emeralds. Find them quickly_.

Then he saw it, a faint glimmer of light a few meters away. Sonic's feet touched down on the muddy floor of the lake, and he began stepping forward slowly, fighting against the water that slowed him down. Small, black specks seemed to be appearing over his eyelids. Kind of like flies over rotting food. Flies buzzing. Buzz, buzz...

Sonic snapped himself out of the trance. The lack of oxygen was beginning to take its toll on his mind. He became tired, and almost involuntarily sucked in a mouthful of water. He was only a few steps away from the light. He could faintly see the knapsack now, laying in the mud at the bottom of the lake. It was open and the green Chaos Emerald was shining out, beckoning him forward.

Flashes of light permeated the film of dust blanketing the surface of the water. Were they explosions? Sonic didn't want to stop and wonder.

A red haze was beginning to descend over Sonic's vision. He reached out and gripped the knapsack, pulling it towards him. He was sleepy. He wanted to fall asleep. He almost choked on another gulp of water, but kept his lips pressed together. Sonic extended one hand and gripped the green Chaos Emeralds, feeling the energy from all seven begin to course through his body. He pictured the ARK, in Tails' room, where it was safe and secure.

He opened his mouth and, as he exhaled, let out a gurgling cry of, "Chaos Control!"

A brilliant flash of light illuminated the entire lake, and Sonic felt his body become weightless. There was a moment of tension, a tingling feeling throughout his body as it was transported in a blast of Chaos Energy, then his vision became clear. He was lying on the cold, metal floor of Tails' room aboard the Space Colony ARK, his fur drenched and the knapsack sitting next to him.

At long last, he was home.


	13. Bittersweet Reunion

After waiting a few moments to catch his breath, Sonic picked up the sopping wet knapsack and hurried out into the ARK corridors to find Tails, Knuckles, Amy, or anybody. To his surprise the halls were flooded with Freedom Fighters, all with bewildered and terrified looks on their faces. An ARK operative's voice was blaring from speakers in the ceiling, resonating down the cramped corridors.

"... And all citizens are advised to return to their living quarters until ARK security can quarantine and eliminate the threat. Please remain calm and follow all lockdown procedures when in your personal quarters. Thank you," the voice said. The speakers crackled with static, then became silent.

The Freedom Fighters in the corridors began murmuring amongst themselves uneasily. Some of them shouldered through the crowd back to their rooms as instructed, but others stayed.

"Uh, excuse me, what's going on?" Sonic asked a young human girl next to him.

"Some Chaos Clones were able to get onboard a few minutes ago. I guess most of them are dead by now, but security is still making sure everything's safe," the girl said.

Sonic was shocked. "Clones? How did they get all the way up here?" he gasped.

"They didn't say. I'm getting back to my room though," the girl said, shaking her head in disbelief before turning and disappearing into the crowd.

Sonic watched her go, then looked back at the speakers nervously. Then he too began making his way through the mob of ARK citizens in the corridors. He tried to activate the elevator to get down to the control room of the ARK, but the small switch on the wall blinked red for a moment. That meant that power wasn't reaching the elevators. Sonic cursed under his breath and reached into his knapsack for the Chaos Emeralds. Their energy sprang forward to his fingertips like jolts of static electricity, and his quills began to glow with a golden light. Sonic slung the knapsack over his shoulders and leaped down into the elevator shaft, plummeting down thirty levels until he swerved sharply to the left and into another corridor.

He stepped aside as security personnel in body armor and wielding Chaos Rays rushed past him, presumably heading off to deal with the remaining Chaos Clones. Sonic released the energy from his body, and his golden glow died away. He didn't want to make a scene after all, and a glowing hedgehog was certainly not something most Freedom Fighters saw every day.

Sonic hurried through the corridors, heading back to the control room. He skidded to a halt inside to find Captain Jeed, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Amy, Wave, and the Chaotix standing amongst a team of frenzied ARK technicians tinkering away at control boards.

"Are the elevators working yet?" asked Jeed.

"No, they're locked down. It needs a password–"

Shadow cut the technician off. "Maria," he said. "Almost every password aboard this thing is Maria."

The technician glanced at the black hedgehog, then typed the name into the control board. "Well what do you know. It worked," he said, sounding mildly surprised.

"What else is wrong?" asked Wave.

The technician looked grim. "A lot," he said.

"What do you mean, 'a lot'?" asked Espio, frowning.

"Put simply, I'm not sure this station will ever operate fully again. That power core has been there ever since this place was built, and sort of fused with the ARK over time," the techie explained.

"So..."

"So some of these systems may never work again. The recycling system's gotten so backed up it might be busted. Worst case scenario, we all have to leave the ARK and find someplace new to live."

There was silence in the room for a long time. Sonic was about to speak up when Jeed said loudly, "Wow, well this is just perfect. None of this would have happened if genius Knuckles hadn't torn the power core out."

"Shut up, Jeed, I'm sick of you. If I hadn't done that the ARK would've been torn to pieces by now," Knuckles snapped. Jeed seemed taken aback by Knuckles' reaction, but said nothing. Maybe he'd been waiting for someone to actually stand up to him.

"How's that wierd activity on Earth going?" Tails asked, trying to change the subject. None of them liked the prospect of having to return to the Chaos Clone infested planet.

"Just look out the window," muttered Wave glumly.

"Uh, hey guys," Sonic said.

Everyone turned quickly, their eyes wide with shock.

"Sonic!" Tails cried, grinning.

"We all thought you were dead!" exclaimed Rouge.

"No, I'm still here," said Sonic, stepping forward. He jerked his thumb back towards the corridor, frowning. "There were a bunch of people up in the hallways, one of them said that some Chaos Clones boarded the ARK. What happened?" he asked.

Jeed frowned at Wave and said, "The clones used Team Rogue as bait for a... trap, or something. We sent a rescue team, and the clones ripped their ship apart. Then we sent an even bigger rescue team and... well..."

"It was a massacre," Knuckles said grimly. "They killed more than half of us and used the _Fist_'s autopilot commands to fly back here."

"Jesus," muttered Sonic, "Is everyone okay?"

"Storm's dead, and I have a broken ankle. Oh, and the ARK is probably shut down for good. Other than that, yeah, we're just peachy," Wave said sarcastically.

"Oh..." Sonic grimaced, at a loss for words.

"We were able to replace the ARK's power core with the Master Emerald to destroy the clones, or at least most of them. Of course security is all upset, running around looking for any that survived," said Rouge.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, this was all really terrible, but not many people on the ARK really got hurt, right? So let's hear about what went on with Sonic," Tails quickly interjected before anyone could go on.

"Tails!" Amy gasped, looking appalled at how little Tails seemed to care about all of the people that had just died.

Tails' face became red. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "We can talk about that later, I guess," he muttered.

"It's a long story anyway. I'll tell you about it a little while later," Sonic said, striding forward and patting his younger brother on the shoulder. Then he leaned forward and quietly said, "You don't want to go poking around in any other dimensions any more, Tails."

Tails looked puzzled and disappinted, but nodded nevertheless.

There was a flash of red from outside, and everyone turned towards the reinforced glass wall with a gasp. Earth's crust had split wide open over the Indian Ocean, revealing its red-hot mantle beneath.

"Oh my God! What the hell is that?" Jeed cried, his eyes wide with horror.

Sonic gaped at the planet below. "N-no... I... what?" he stammered.

"Holy..." Vector gasped in shock.

Tails glanced at Sonic and saw the look on his face. "Sonic," he said slowly, "do you know what happened?"

Sonic couldn't take his eyes away from the doomed planet. It was just like what had happened all those years ago, when Blaze and Eggman Nega had arrived in the Chaos Dimension. "I do," he managed to croak out.

Everyone turned to him, bewildered.

"What happened?" Tails asked.

Sonic took a deep breath, trying to steady his heart-rate. This couldn't be happening. He had left the Sol Dimension. Everything was supposed to be going back to normal. "That dimension I went to, it was Blaze the Cat's dimension. Do you remember her?" Sonic asked.

Tails thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, yeah, she was the one who had those other opposite emeralds," he said.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. I went to her dimension, and now the two dimensions are absorbing each other again. But I _left!_ It should be all going back to the way it was before I even went there!"

Then he remembered. When he was underwater trying to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, there had been bright flashes coming from above the surface. What had they been? "Unless..." Sonic slowly trailed off.

"What?" asked Amy, frowning.

Sonic pressed his palm to his forehead. His eyes were closed, but could still see. He was looking over a sea of sand and lava, smoke and ashes swirling into the air. The sky was dark. Around his head were the Sol Emeralds. He was grinning at everything, at the destruction he had caused.

The flashes had been Apollo absorbing Blaze, Sonic had realized. Apollo had warped to the Chaos Dimension, hell-bent on seeing the destruction of both worlds through.

"There's someone else here," Sonic said, opening his eyes again. "Someone from the Sol Dimension, they're trying to destroy both of our worlds."

"Who?" asked Knuckles.

Sonic grimaced. "That orange hedgehog that was here in the beginning of everything. Apollo," he said.

The room fell into silence. Everyone stared at Sonic, shocked. Knuckles reflexively touched the "A" shaped scar under one of his arms.

"So what do we do?" asked Jeed finally. It was strange to hear the grizzled captain asking questions. Usually he was the one who provided answers.

"I have to fight him. I have to send him back, or kill him," said Sonic.

"You? Remember how Storm and I had to save you from him that one time?" sneered Wave.

"I'm the only one that can beat him, trust me," Sonic said. "If he absorbed Blaze, he'll have gotten her power to use the Sol Emeralds to make a super form."

"Both of you with super forms? How can either of you win if you're both invincible?" frowned Knuckles.

There was a shout from out in the corridor as a live clone was found. A _zap_ from a Chaos Ray soon followed and everything became silent once more.

Sonic glanced at the doorway, then the lights, then at Knuckles. "You used the Master Emerald to destroy the Chaos Clones, right?" he asked.

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, what does that have to do with this?" he asked.

"Everything! While I was in that other dimension, the Chaos Emeralds lost power and I had to recharge them with an alternate Master Emerald to get back out. Knuckles," Sonic said, "do you think you could use the Master Emerald to power down the Sol Emeralds?"

Knuckles frowned. "It would be hard if that Apollo guy has them. You'd need to bring him close enough to the Master Emerald, and even then the Chaos Emeralds would probably be powered down too. I don't have that much control over the Master Emerald," he said uncertainly.

"That's fine," Sonic said quickly.

"And what happens after the emeralds don't have power?" Shadow asked.

"Our super forms disappear, and we can die," said Sonic.

Rouge blinked. "How is that a good thing for you?" she asked, confused.

"It isn't, but I have to take that chance. It's the only way I'll be able to beat Apollo," Sonic replied.

Jeed looked uncomfortable. "This plan of yours sounds a bit dangerous," he said slowly.

"It is," Sonic admitted, "but it's our only shot."


	14. The Final Showdown

Sonic winced, shielding his eyes from the glow of the lava with one hand. He took a deep breath and stepped forward, but was impeded suddenly as a low rumble shook the ground, splitting the sand beneath his feet. Sonic leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding plunging into the fresh rift in the earth.

The boundary between dimensions was becoming more unstable with every passing minute. Within hours Earth would tear itself apart. Sonic had to find Apollo, and he had to find him fast.

The parting from the group had been difficult for Sonic, especially from Tails.

"Just make sure you're ready to tell me about that other dimension when you get back, okay?" grinned Tails, trying to force down his distress at Sonic's dangerous mission.

Sonic wanted to tell his younger brother the truth. He wanted to say that he probably wasn't even coming back. But he didn't. He flashed Tails a reassuring grin, hugged him, and then turned away. If Sonic failed, it was the last time he would see any of the other Freedom Fighters. No, if Sonic failed, it was over. His friends would be gone as well. Everything would be gone.

Sonic had fought back his emotions and stepped back into the last remaining ARK shuttle, letting Knuckles fly them both to Angel Island. The island was nothing but a few meters of exposed rock jutting up from underneath the ocean until Knuckles replaced the Master Emerald in its shrine. When the emerald was returned, the island lifted itself majestically out of the water and into the sky. In order to achieve the emerald's full power, Knuckles had said, it had to return home.

After Knuckles was set and Angel Island was back in the air, Sonic had flown off in search of Apollo. It wasn't that difficult to find him, even with all of the tumult, lightning, and terrified Chaos Clones throwing themselves blindly into lava pits. And now Sonic was here in the Sahara desert, and the world was splitting in half, and Apollo was here somewhere waiting for him.

The blue hedgehog carefully stepped around the steaming crack in the desert, then continued on across the endless dunes. Fire rained around him, and occasionally he saw a panicking Chaos Clone rush by, trying to escape from its inevitable demise.

After a few minutes Sonic stopped and lifted his face towards the sky. The black clouds were still swirling low in the troposphere, penetrated only by the blinding flashes of lightning that would occasionally slash through the sky.

Another jagged bolt of lightning cut through the heavens, quickly followed by an ear-splitting clap of thunder. It rolled away across the endless plains of the Sahara.

"Hello blue hedgehog," said a voice.

Sonic turned around slowly, peering through the gloom. Standing only a few meters away was Apollo, gripping the Astrum Emerald in his right hand. Sonic realized that he must have taken it and recharged the Sol Emeralds when he had gotten to the Chaos Dimension. Around Apollo's head floated each of the seven Sol Emeralds.

Sonic stood firmly, his fists clenched at his sides. "Hey Apollo," he said, scowling at the orange hedgehog. Apollo said nothing. Sonic swallowed. "What did you do to Blaze?" he asked, unable to take his eyes away from the Sol Emeralds.

"What do you think?" Apollo asked, his mouth curling into a sneer.

Sonic's heart began hammering against his ribcage in fury. "Silver?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"He wasn't worth the trouble. I had to rush to get here before everything went back to normal, anyway," Apollo said. A panicking Chaos Clone ran by, and he snickered. "Well, as normal as it can get _here_, at least."

"I hate you," Sonic growled.

"Same to you," Apollo grinned, "and I'll really enjoy killing you."

"You aren't killing anybody anymore. This all ends here. Now." Sonic willed the seven Chaos Emeralds to him, feeling their very presence give him strength.

Apollo scowled darkly at Sonic. "Yes it does, blue hedgehog. Yes it does."

Lightning slashed the dark clouds in half. Thunder exploded in the sky overhead.

Sonic summoned the energy from the Chaos Emeralds into his own body. Golden flames leapt up from his quills. Apollo did the same, and a fiery red glow engulfed his body.

The two hedgehogs shot forward, the intense energy from both their bodies crackling through the air. They met each other with a loud _crash_ of thunder, and the battle was on.

Sonic spindashed at Apollo's feet, hoping to trip him up. Apollo flipped over Sonic and then spun around to aim a reverse roundhouse kick at the golden hedgehog. Sonic sprang out of the tight ball he had wrapped himself in and caught Apollo's foot, pinning it under his armpit. He raised his arm and blocked a blow from Apollo, then punched the red hedgehog in the chest three times.

Apollo staggered out of Sonic's grip, but didn't fall down. He rushed back with the power of rage incarnate, his fists hammering into Sonic's body quickly and powerfully. Sonic shrugged off the hits and delivered his own flurry of punches to Apollo's face and chest, with almost no effect.

Apollo struck out with a roundhouse punch aimed at Sonic's jaw. It never connected. Sonic was simply too fast for Apollo. The glowing, gold hedgehog ducked under Apollo's fist while simultaneously landing a devastating hit to his enemy's groin. Apollo lurched backwards and Sonic came right back up like a spring, cracking his knuckles under Apollo's jaw.

The Chaos-charged punch sent Apollo flying into the air. He came down again, spiraling down towards a tall sand dune. But despite the powerful punch Sonic had landed, Apollo immediately flipped back to his feet and stopped his fall, hovering tauntingly in the sky. Sonic leapt into flight as well, greeting Apollo in midair with two strong haymaker strikes.

Apollo flipped forward from the sheer force of the punches, but used his momentum to his advantage and gripped Sonic's neck between his heels. Sonic struggled to get free, but Apollo front-flipped once more, releasing Sonic and hurling him down towards a crack in the ground.

Sonic backflipped and caught himself just before landing in the boiling magma bubbling up from under the surface of the Earth. The surface of the red-hot metal hissed under Sonic's feet, but his super aura protected him from any harm. Sonic aimed into the sky and flew upwards with all his speed, shooting straight past Apollo and heading westward towards Angel Island.

_Now that I've got his attention..._ Sonic thought to himself, smiling wryly.

The sandy desert beneath him quickly dissolved into a colorful blur of wastes, waters, grasslands, and occasional cities. Sonic was just about to pass over Japan when something painful and scalding struck him in the back. He lost focus and slowed considerably, plummeting towards the land below. Before Sonic could recuperate from the fireball to his back, Apollo overtook him. The two hedgehogs crashed into a city, smashing straight through a long-abandoned skyscraper and tumbling into the city streets.

They both rolled across the pavement, still punching and kicking and (in Apollo's case) biting. Finally Apollo kicked Sonic away, sending him crashing into the side of a building.

The entire wall concaved dangerously upon impact, and Sonic was sent crashing to the dusty floor of an old garage building. His super aura flickered, dimmed, then went out entirely.

As the blue hedgehog climbed to his feet, he caught sight of a flash of red through the hole he had made in the wall. Sonic was just in time to dodge a glowing fireball, but couldn't avoid Apollo himself as the red hedgehog tackled Sonic straight through the building.

The two hedgehogs rolled away from each other in the alley behind the building. Sonic was sweating, and Apollo's shoulders were heaving with each gasp of breath. They began circling each other, their gazes never wavering from each other.

"So is this how it's going to be, then? We just keep fighting until the world destroys itself and there's nothing left?" asked Apollo nonchalantly.

"I wasn't planning on that," said Sonic, tensing in case Apollo tried anything sneaky. But the red hedgehog did nothing.

"I'm just fighting because I've got nothing better to do with this time. Why are you fighting, because you think you can beat me?" Apollo sneered.

"Yeah," Sonic replied flatly.

"Well you can't, and I can't beat you either. If you haven't realized that by now, I guess you really are stupid as I always thought you were."

"I think you're wrong there."

"What?" Apollo looked confused.

"You heard me," Sonic said. His fists coiled like a pair of vipers and his eyes narrowed into slits. The message was clear.

He wasn't giving up.

This was a fight to the death.

"So come on and give it your best shot," Sonic said.

Apollo looked confused for a moment. Then his look of bewilderment faded into one of amusement. He charged forward once more.

But Sonic was ready. The blue hedgehog moved with fluidity and speed that would put even the most graceful dancer to shame. He swung his arm down and blocked a punch aimed for his ribs, kicked his opponent in the chest, then quickly followed up with a jab to Apollo's throat.

Apollo let out a choked _gurk_ and stumbled backwards, clutching his neck. He barely recovered in time to dodge another kick from Sonic.

Sonic swung a reverse roundhouse at Apollo's head.

Apollo ducked.

Sonic tried for a left hook at Apollo's jaw.

Apollo blocked it.

Sonic cocked his fist and threw another punch straight at Apollo's sternum.

Apollo caught Sonic's fist one hand and attempted to Judo-flip the blue hedgehog onto his back. While he was upside-down, Sonic activated his super form and followed through the flip until he landed on his feet. Then he drew back both hands and slammed his energy-charged palms into Apollo's chest, blasting the bewildered orange hedgehog up and into the air.

Sonic followed him, soaring up above the rooftops and knocking Apollo higher into the sky. Apollo steadied himself and waited for Sonic to fly up to his level. Then they both rocketed forward, slamming into each other.

The tumult created from their clashing energies caused any and all nearby buildings to shudder in their foundations. The two hedgehogs continued battling, rolling through the air, punching each other, and firing bolts of Chaos and Sol energy at each other. And still they rose higher, fighting until they were miles above the city. Until they were in the atmosphere. Until they were in outer space.

From the control room of the Space Colony ARK, the Freedom Fighters could see two dots zipping about above the planet Earth. Flashes of multicolored light lit up the sky every few moments, as though fireworks were exploding above the atmosphere.

This was more than just hedgehog versus hedgehog. It was more than Sonic against Apollo.

This was Chaos versus Sol. Winner take all.

--------------

**A/N:** Yeah, the battle was a bit long, so it'll carry on into the next chapter.


	15. The Hour of Chaos

Apollo slammed his fist into Sonic's stomach, sending the golden hedgehog reeling back towards the ARK. Sonic steadied himself, then hurled a bolt of Chaos energy at Apollo. It struck the red hedgehog square in the chest, leaving him open for just a moment.

Sonic launched himself forward, knocking Apollo down towards the tumultuous planet below. As Apollo fell, he gathered a white-hot sphere of Sol energy and flames in his palms. He hurled it at Sonic with all his might just as Sonic sent a bolt of Chaos energy down at him. The two attacks connected and exploded violently, sending Sonic hurtling farther away from Earth and Apollo plummeting down into the swirling black clouds.

Sonic blinked when the explosion cleared. Was this over? Had he defeated Apollo? No, Apollo was still down there, waiting for him. Sonic could feel it.

Sonic flew down into the clouds, squinting through the gloom in an attempt to find Apollo. But there was nothing.

Nothing except a flicker of red from behind a nearby cloud.

Sonic flipped upside down, pressed his arms against his sides, and dove downwards just as Apollo came flying towards him.

_I think we've screwed around long enough,_ thought Sonic, angling himself towards Angel Island and focusing all his energy into flight. Within minutes he found himself skimming across the surface of the Northern Pacific Ocean, with Apollo hot on his trail.

The sea blurred beneath him, tiny droplets of water spraying up into his face. But Sonic didn't think about the fact that he was so close to water. He was too preoccupied thinking of Knuckles.

Knuckles was ready. Knuckles was waiting. This was almost over, one way or another.

A dot appeared on the horizon. Sonic poured every ounce of his strength into flying. He could feel the heat of Apollo's flames at his feet.

Suddenly Sonic felt Apollo grip his ankle tightly. Sonic looked back, desperately trying to shake him off, but Apollo wouldn't let go. They spiraled through the air towards Angel Island, Apollo dragging both of them down towards the ocean. But Sonic fought back. He furiously wrenched his foot out of Apollo's grip and stomped his heel into the evil hedgehog's face, a blow that would have broken his nose if it hadn't been for Apollo's super form.

Apollo grunted and let go of Sonic's foot, falling behind. Sonic looked ahead once more and came to a sudden, jerking stop. He had almost flow right past the island. Sonic landed near the shrine of the Master Emerald, rolling over one shoulder to reduce the impact. Then he hurried towards the shrine, where Knuckles was waiting with his spiked paws on the emerald's glittering surface.

Apollo skidded to a halt by the shrine, his heels tearing huge gouges into earth still damp from being submerged in the ocean. He strode forward, scowling at the two. "So what is all this? Some kind of a reunion?" he sneered.

"Not really," said Sonic. He turned to Knuckles and nodded.

Knuckles closed his eyes. _Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart. You are the heart. You control the power. Stop the Chaos and the Sol Emeralds. Take away their energy_. He let his thoughts flow into the Master Emerald through his hands. The emerald glowed brightly, and Apollo's smirk faded.

The Chaos and Sol Emeralds both materialized around Sonic and Apollo, and slowly their brightly colored lights began to fade. Green, yellow, purple, blue, turquoise, white, red. The twinkling emeralds slowly died out, reverting back to normal, plain stones.

Sonic and Apollo's super forms were gone. Apollo was shocked. Sonic grinned.

"Now how about a fair fight?" the blue hedgehog asked. He leaped down at the bewildered Apollo, quickly feigning a blow to his chest and then smashing his elbow into Apollo's jaw. Behind them Knuckles was wrestling with the power of both emeralds, trying to keep them locked inside the Master Emerald.

Sonic was hit hard in jaw and fell to the ground. He immediately rebounded with a mule-kick to Apollo's stomach.

Apollo almost collapsed from the strength of the kick, but was somehow able to keep his feet. Sonic lunged at him once more, but Apollo let the blue hedgehog tackle him. They fell into the mud and Apollo rolled over, pinning Sonic underneath him.

"Oh, blue hedgehog, I think I'll finally take what's mine," Apollo hissed. He reached out for Sonic's forehead, his hand beginning to glow with a ghostly veil of light.

Sonic's right hand shot out, gripping Apollo's wrist and keeping his hand away. But Apollo was stronger than him. His hand continued its descent, and the pale light seemed to grow brighter, anticipating its feast.

"Apollo," Sonic grunted, trying to shift his other arm to ward off Apollo's groping hand. But he couldn't. Apollo had him pinned.

Apollo grinned as his fingers brushed Sonic's face. "Goodbye, blue hedgehog," he said.

Suddenly Sonic felt cold. His body temperature dropped drastically, and he became tired, so tired. He felt his eyelids droop, but struggled to stay awake.

Keep running.

Keep going.

Keep fighting.

Not yet. Sonic wasn't finished. He couldn't die. But what could he do?

Sonic stared deep into Apollo's eyes, trying to will his enemy to stop. What other abilities did Sonic have against Apollo? He knew he could sense Dyamisius in him and see through Apollo's eyes, but he hadn't explored any other hidden powers.

And then he knew what he could do. What he had to do. It had taken him a war for the planet, a fight through the hell of another dimension, and this last moment, this last hour of chaos to realize what had to be done.

Sonic tried to look past Apollo's eyes, into the glint of red in the back of his pupils. _I am part of you, you are part of me_, he mentally told the tiny glint of red. _You can live in me, not him. Don't you hate your servant? Don't you hate the polluted feeling his body gives you?_

_Don't be afraid..._ the nightmare voice of Dyamisius whispered.

_I'm not afraid. I want you to be one and whole again, but not in Apollo. In me. I can feed you more than he ever could. I'll be your servant. Kill him, escape his body, and rejoin your other half in me._

Silence.

Sonic grew weak.

Then the glow emanating from Apollo's hand faded from blue to a bright, fiery red. Sonic's strength began to return, slowly at first, but then quicker. Soon he felt stronger than he had been before the battle against Apollo.

Apollo looked bewildered. His glowing hand tore itself away from Sonic's forehead, and he staggered away from Sonic. Sonic slowly climbed to his feet, watching Apollo struggle against Dyamisius's spirit.

"What are you doing to me?" Apollo demanded, looking wildly at Sonic as his chest began to glow with a hellish red light.

"Not me. Dyamisius," Sonic said.

Then Apollo suddenly realized he truth. All this time he had been lulled into thinking that he was in control of his actions and that Dyamisius no longer controlled him. He had been wrong. Dyamisius had influenced him to feed, making him feel sick and weak whenever Dyamisius was hungry. Dyamisius had given him the rushes of adrenaline that would stimulate him to fight. Dyamisius was still in control.

"Knuckles!" Sonic shouted over his shoulder.

"What?" Knuckles roared back, his voice thin and strained.

"Can you neutralize the energy in both emeralds... for good?"

Knuckles almost lost his concentration entirely. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Dull their energies until the Chaos and Sol Emeralds are just normal stones, so that this will never happen again," Sonic explained.

A vein bulged in Knuckles' forehead. If it were just the Chaos Emeralds it wouldn't be too much of a strain, but trying to force so much energy out of fourteen equal power sources? Knuckles was beginning to worry that he was going to kill himself unintentionally.

"What about the Chaos Clones? We'll need the Chaos Emeralds if we want to beat them," Knuckles said.

Sonic looked out across the boiling ocean at the land. Or at least where the land had once been. Nothing remained but a few floating blocks of rock in a sea of lava. "I don't think many of them will have survived this, Knux," he said.

Knuckles hesitated, then nodded slowly. "I'll t-try," he stammered weakly.

Sonic turned back to Apollo, who's body was smoking now.

"I can't... I don't..." Apollo whispered, horrified. Dyamisius was roaring about inside him like a caged animal, desperate to get free. Apollo's quills became so hot they were set ablaze. Then Apollo looked up at Sonic, his eyes wide and fearful.

"Sonic," he choked out, almost as if he was about to ask a question.

Then his entire body lurched. The flames consumed him completely, swallowing him whole. Sonic turned away, covering his mouth to keep from vomiting at the stench of searing flesh, quills, and bone.

As soon as they had appeared, the flames flickered out. All that remained of Apollo was a pile of white ashes.

With a final push of his own energy, Knuckles felt the Master Emerald absorb every last ounce of Chaos and Sol energy from the two sets of emeralds, diluting it with enough neutral energy until it was next to nothing. Knuckles staggered away from the Master Emerald and let himself flop onto his back.

Sonic just stared at the pile of ashes, knowing what was coming next. A black cloud of smoke curled up from Apollo's remains, drifting towards Sonic as though on a gust of malignant wind. When it was close enough, it shot forward and penetrated his chest, sinking deep into him.

Dyamisius was part of Sonic now.

Wholly and completely.

Sonic felt sick to his stomach. Weak. Tired. And hungry. He turned to Knuckles and began to step towards him shakily. Sonic tried to fight it, but Dyamisius was too strong. It wanted to feed.

"Knuckles," Sonic said in a low voice.

Knuckles opened his eyes and sat up, grinning at Sonic. "We did it," he breathed.

Sonic's hand began to gleam with the familiar light that surrounded Apollo's hands when he was about to feed. Sonic looked up at the Master Emerald, suddenly struck with an idea.

"Knuckles," Sonic said, "I need you to seal me in the Master Emerald. Like Tikal did with Chaos."

Knuckles was confused. "Why?" he asked.

Sonic reached out for him, unable to control his own groping hand. "Dyamisius is– is in me now. It wants to feed. It's the only way you can stop it," he said.

Knuckles looked horrified. "There has to be some other way..." the echidna said uncertainly.

Sonic stopped. Dyamisius knew what he was planning. Now Dyamisius was trying to escape from Sonic's body. Sonic began to feel heat gathering in his chest.

"Do it! _Now!_" Sonic shouted. He fought back against Dyamisius with all his strength, desperately trying to hold the creature within himself.

Knuckles hesitated, then put a trembling hand on the emerald. He glanced at Sonic for a moment, then closed his eyes and murmured, "Master Emerald, I need your power just once more. Seal this creature, this evil, away within you forever. Please."

The Master Emerald stayed dull.

Sonic's quills began to melt. He squeezed his eyes shut and fought back, mentally pressing Dyamisius away.

"Please," Knuckles whispered again.

The Master Emerald glittered, calling upon the last of its strength. Sonic looked up at Knuckles and smiled softly.

"Seeya, Knuckles," he said.

A flash of light. A crash of thunder.

Then darkness.


	16. Farewell

The Freedom Fighters in the ARK control room watched in awe as Earth was engulfed in a blinding white light. For the briefest moment, the planet hung silent and peaceful in space, like a second sun. Then the light dimmed and they found themselves looking no longer at a red, tumultuous planet but a blue, glittering one.

"Is it over?" asked Rouge hesitantly. She honestly expected Earth to suddenly explode without warning.

Nobody replied. Then Jeed said quietly, "I don't know."

Tails leaned over the shoulder of an ARK technician, looking down at the radar screen that had picked up the massive heat signals from Earth in the beginning. "There's nothing," he blinked. Tails looked at everyone else. "I think he did it," he said.

Nobody said anything for a long time.

Then Vector grinned and shouted, "Yeah! He did it!"

As though Vector's laugh had melted a sheet of ice from the others, everyone grinned down at Earth and began cheering happily. Even Shadow, Espio, and Jeed permitted themselves to join the happiness.

It was a few minutes before the laughter died down.

"So what do you think happened?" asked Wave after silence befell the party.

"Well Sonic obviously won," said Shadow, looking back down at Earth.

"Seriously?" Wave asked, her eyes widening sarcastically. "I mean _how_ did he win? If he was just able to beat the other guy into a pulp or needed Knuckles' help."

The answer came soon enough. The thick metal door glided open softly, and a sullen looking Knuckles stepped into the room. In their joy, none of them had noticed him pilot the shuttle up into the hangar.

"Knuckles, glad to see you're okay!" Vector boomed loudly, grinning. But nobody else said a word. No one except Tails.

"Where's Sonic?" the young fox asked.

Knuckles opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and simply shook his head.

Amy blinked. "He's..."

"No," Knuckles said quickly. "Not exactly. But he's gone."

Silence. Everyone in the room bowed their heads in sadness.

"What about the Chaos Emeralds? Did you bring them back? At least we can hope to win the war with those," Jeed said after a while.

"They're gone too. Destroyed."

A few of the Freedom Fighters gasped.

"How can we win the war without Sonic or the emeralds?" asked Espio.

Knuckles drew in a deep breath. "That's the good news," he said. "With all the chaos and destruction down there, I'm betting that most, if not all of the Chaos Clones down on Earth are dead." He cracked a wry smile. "So that's it. No more war. It's over."

Jeed looked skeptical. "How can you be sure?" he asked.

"You saw what it was like from up here. Watching it all from that distance was nothing compared to what it was like up close. Every continent was practically melted, and the oceans were so hot they were boiling. I only survived because I was on Angel Island," Knuckles explained.

The Freedom Fighters began murmuring to each other excitedly. Was this real? Was the war actually over?

Jeed stared at Knuckles for a moment, then turned and looked down at Earth. He stayed silent.

Tail approached him hesitantly. "What is it, sir?" he asked.

Jeed let out a shuddering sigh. "I... know it's true," he said softly. "I just... I just never thought I'd live long enough to see it." And then he genuinely smiled.

"Then we've got work to do! We should get our supplies and head back! Oh, no, no, no, wait! We should tell everyone it's over first!" Charmy buzzed excitedly. Then, before anyone could stop him, the bee zipped over to the control board, flipped a switch labeled _intercom _and said in his shrill voice:

"Attention all ARK residents, we have some ver important news. Earth isn't infested with Chaos monsters anymore. We can go back now! It's over, everybody, all over!"

Everyone in the control room stopped, wondering how the other Freedom Fighters would react. There was a long period of silence as every man, woman and child processed Charmy's piercing words.

Then the entire station seemed to shake with cheers. The floors, ceilings, and walls shuddered violently under the happy stomping of dancing feet. Singing and shouting voices echoed to different levels through the empty elevator shafts. In that instant, all traces of worry, fear, and doubt vanished from the Freedom Fighters.

The war was over. They had won.

* * *

Silver hadn't expected Apollo to follow them. That was why he was too late to save Blaze. No sooner had Sonic jumped into the murky pond in Memorial Park did Apollo appear from nowhere, catching them both off guard.

Silver had been hit in the back of the head and flung aside like a rag doll. When he regained his senses, Apollo was standing where Blaze had been with the Sol Emeralds encircling his head. And without a word, Apollo had disappeared. To where, Silver didn't know.

It was there on his knees, gritting his teeth in fury and trying to force back tears, that Silver was found by Jon the Hedgehog of the Pantheon.

And now here they were, standing by the edge of the park watching the city try to recuperate after the blinding flash of light. That healing light that had made everything stop and rewind, going back to normal.

"Do you know what happened?" Jon asked.

Silver pursed his lips, remembering Blaze's story of her first adventure with Sonic. "Yes," he said, "but I don't know how."

"So everything's okay?" the green hedgehog asked Silver, glancing sidelong at him.

"I sure hope so," grunted Silver. He wasn't in the mood for talking at the moment.

Jon sighed. "Look, I'm sorry for what happened to Queen Blaze. I know she was your friend, and I respect that. But I was sent to find you, not cry about how she died. These things happen," he said.

Silver scowled at him. "I suppose they do," he said. "What did you want to find me for?"

Jon became stiff as a police car raced by, its sirens wailing. Then he relaxed when it passed. "Graye knows you're in trouble. You're a fugitive now, like us. And we know you like to do what's right, too," he said.

"What do you know about what's right? You're a murderer just like the rest of your little gang," spat Silver.

"If we hadn't been taking care of those people from the Chaos Dimension, we'd all have been dead a long time ago. Sometimes you have to do wrong to do right. But we're through with that now, _hopefully_," Jon continued.

"Then break up the Pantheon. Nobody needs you anymore," said Silver.

Jon laughed grimly. "Oh, yes they do. The queen is dead, with nobody to take her place. This world is going to need all the law-enforcers it can get while the government is reorganized. Who knows what things people will try while the law is this weak?"

Silver, cautious but suddenly interested, turned to Jon. "Say I do help you," he said. "What would we do next?"

A small smile appeared on Jon's face. "Well, I know you're already acquainted with Henri the Tomcat..."

* * *

It was a week after the end of the war– June 23rd, 2014– and almost the entire ARK was empty. Tails, Knuckles, and Amy had decided to stay and make sure that everyone was escorted into the shuttles safely. Over the course of the week they received many recorded messages from their friends.

Apparently the healing of the world had repaired any previous damage as well. The Chaotix sent them a message happily describing how they moved in with Vanilla and Cream, what with their old apartment building being leveled to the ground. They were still open to work as private detectives, but were at the moment helping other refugees rebuild their homes, businesses, and lives.

Wave had rounded up her own gang of feathered friends, her leading them in adrenaline-fueled Extreme Gear races throughout the world. They made money, Tails expected, by robbing and looting old, empty abodes. But as long as Wave was happy, it didn't matter much to Tails.

Shadow and Rouge kept them mainly in the dark about their goings-on. In her message, Rouge had simply said they were taking "a long vacation in the Carribean" after stressing so much during the war. Tails found it hard to imagine Shadow laying on the sun washed shores of a Carribean beach, although he didn't say so in his return message.

By the end of the week, Tails was spending his days counting his meager belongings in the control room of the ARK. Mostly it was to distract him from the loneliness he felt in Sonic's absence. He had just finished making sure (for the fifteenth time) that he had his toolbox with him when Knuckles and Amy entered the room.

"Well, the shuttle's waiting for us. I hope you're coming, Tails," Amy said.

Tails looked up, blinking. "It's time to go?" he asked.

"Yep. We're the last people aboard the ARK," said Amy, smiling at Tails.

"So, you ready?" Knuckles asked.

Tails nodded. "Yeah, yeah," he said, slinging his pack over his shoulder. It was still hard for him to imagine leaving the ARK after living there for so many years. "So," he said conversationally as he picked up his belongings, "what are you guys going to do when we get back?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I still have an emerald to protect," he said slowly. Then he added, "And remember, you can always visit any time you want. Sonic..."

"Yeah, Sonic will always be there," Tails said softly to himself. Knuckles had told him about Sonic's sacrifice so that he wouldn't hurt anyone. Although saddened by the loss, Tails somehow knew that it was going to happen. And he knew that Sonic wasn't truly gone. Somehow, someday, they would meet Sonic again.

One way or another.

Tails turned to Amy, trying to shake the thoughts off. "How about you?" he asked.

Amy shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I used to spend all my time chasing Sonic..." she trailed off, her smile fading. Then she sighed. "Well, I'll find something. Cream and Vanilla are always in need of company. How about you?"

Tails blinked in surprise. He hadn't really thought about it.

"I don't really know," he said. "I guess I'll go back to what I used to do. Invent things... stuff."

Amy and Knuckles nodded, seeming satisfied enough with the answer.

"Well, shall we?" asked Knuckles, nodding towards the door. He and Amy stepped out, shouldering their packs and heading for the hangar. Tails started to follow them, but then stopped. He turned back and looked out the window once more, watching Earth glitter down below.

Tails' lips moved, and he spoke almost too softly to even hear himself.

"Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog."

THE END

* * *

**A/N: **And... that's it. The end. Strange. I feel a strange sense of relief and sadness at the same time. I know there may still be possibilities for yet ANOTHER sequel, but... no. However, if anyone wants to (not like anyone actually does, but I'm just saying), you can write a continuation of their own. Anyway, I would like to thank everyone who's read this, especially if you reviewed. I'd also like to give special thanks to these people:

Fauxmon: You always kept me motivated and were there to give me support throughout all three stories. Thanks so much.

DarkspineSilver92: As an author of action-oriented fanfictions, you definitely knew what you were talking about regarding the action moments in this. Thanks a lot for your support.

Gail Chan: Your unwavering enthusiasm about... everything really helped me along with writing this. Thank you very much.

Kiba Sniper: You've been a regular reader/reviewer, and your praise makes me very happy to have written this. Thanks, Kiba.

SlashBandicoot43: Another regular reviewer, your support really helped motivate me to write. Thanks.

All I can say is that I really hoped you enjoyed reading, as I definitely had a blast writing everything. These may not end up as some of my best writings (we'll see if I can improve in the future), but I think it will definitely remain one of my biggest.

Hope to see you next time.

I really need to think of a catchprase to put in my final author notes...


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